Last Review Date: June 2023

This notice explains to you the use of cookies and similar tracking technologies on finegael.ie

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is a small text file stored on your computer or mobile device that contains data related to a website you visit. Cookies have a number of uses.  They are used to ensure that a website functions properly as you might expect it to. Cookies also allow websites to ‘remember’ your browsing habits or preferences over a period of time. Cookies may be set by Fine Gael as the website operator directly (“first-party cookies”) or in some cases, by another third-party service provider (“third-party cookies”). In the latter scenario, cookies are deployed for advertising or analytics purposes. Fine Gael will only be able to directly recognise and read the information contained on first-party cookies.

Other Tracking Technologies

 

Third Parties

We avail of third-party technologies across our site. These technologies help us to understand how you use the site and the ways in which we can improve your user experience. These technologies may track certain information such as the pages you visit across our site as well as how long your visit lasts. This allows us to continue providing engaging content.

Once enabled, these technologies may be used to enhance your profile or to contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies. For any third-party technology used on our site, we will provide a link to that third-party’s respective cookie/privacy policy for your information. We encourage our visitors to review these policies in advance of granting consent to deployment.

What Information Do We Obtain from You?

For each visitor to our site, we automatically gather certain potentially identifying information and store it. This information includes your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, your operating system, date/time stamp, processor or device serial number, unique device identifier, and clickstream data. We collect this information on an individual basis and in aggregate, or combined form.

Our Use of Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies

We use cookies to provide you with the best user experience on our website, this includes:

  • Network Optimisation.
  • Providing support for payment features.
  • Analysing visitor traffic across our site.
  • Providing you with more relevant advertising content.
  • Remembering your cookie consent status.

Categories of Tracking Technologies That We Set

We avail of both first and third-party technologies across our site. Fine Gael takes our visitors’ right to privacy seriously in keeping with our obligations. Should you consent to the deployment of any category of optional technology, we will record your consent for a period of no longer than 6 months subject to interaction; at which point these technologies will be disabled. You will then be prompted to refresh you consent. You may change your settings at any time by clicking the ‘Cookie Settings’ link at the footer of our website.

Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function. They are set for security purposes and in response to actions made by you which amount to a service request such as recording your consent status or as you fill out forms on our site. You have the option to disable these cookies via your browser settings, but should you do so, certain aspects of our site will no longer function. For more information about the specific technologies we use for this purpose, please see below.

Should you wish to disable these cookies via your browser settings, please see the following links relating to your particular browser.

Performance Cookies (optional)

These cookies allow use to determine the number of visits to our site as well as where that traffic originates. This helps us understand which pages are the most popular as well as how it is that you come to view them. For example, when enabled, we use Google Analytics for aggregated, anonymized website traffic analysis. In order to track your session usage, Google drops a cookie (_ga) with a randomly-generated ClientID in your browser. This ID is anonymized and contains no identifiable information like email, phone number, name, etc. We also send Google your masked IP Address. We use GA to track aggregated website behaviour, such as what pages you looked at, for how long, etc. This information is important to us for improving the user experience and determining site effectiveness.

This information will not be combined by Fine Gael for profiling purposes, however, certain third parties such as Google may use this information in aggregate form for the purposes outlined in their respective privacy notices. If you disable this category of cookie our site will still work, though its improvement over time will be hampered.

For more information on Google Analytics as well as how you may opt-out of being tracked on this and other sites, please see the following links:

For more information on the specific technologies we and our partners use for this purpose, please see below.

 

Google ReCAPTCHA

reCAPTCHA is used to check whether the data entered on our website (such as on a registration form) has been entered by a human or by an automated program. To do this, reCAPTCHA analyses the behaviour of the website visitor based on various characteristics. This analysis starts automatically as soon as the website visitor enters the website. For the analysis, reCAPTCHA evaluates various information (e.g. IP address, how long the visitor has been on the website, or mouse movements made by the user). The data collected during the analysis will be forwarded to Google.

The reCAPTCHA analysis take place completely in the background. Website visitors are not advised that such an analysis is taking place.

Data processing is based on Art. 6 (1) (f) of the GDPR. We, as website operator, have a legitimate interest in protecting our site from abusive automated crawling and spam.

For more information about Google reCAPTCHA and Google’s privacy policy, please visit the following links:

https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ and https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/android.html.

Targeting/Marketing Technologies (optional)

These cookies and other tracking technologies may be set through our site by either Fine Gael or our advertising and social media partners. They may be used to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. These technologies operate by uniquely identifying your browser and internet device such as your phone or desktop and monitor specific activity across multiple sites.

In the majority of cases you have the ability to opt-out of third-party cross-site tracking via the links provided.

For more information on the specific technologies we and our partners use for this purpose, including how your information may be further processed, please see below.


 

Further Information:

We regularly scan our website using a third-party tool to maintain a record of the tracking technologies we deploy. Fine Gael will only process your information in accordance with this notice as well as our Privacy Notice.

Should you require additional information, you may contact our Data Protection Officer at the following email address: dataprotection@finegael.com

You may also contact our Data Protection Officer by writing in to:

Data Protection Officer

Fine Gael HQ,
51 Upper Mount Street,
Dublin 2,
D02 W924

Should you wish to make a complaint regarding the processing of your personal data or are unsatisfied with how we have handled your information, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Supervisory Authority. You may lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner via their online form