INFORMATION ON COOKIES - COOKIE POLICY

1. FOREWORD

This document has been prepared by the Communication Department (hereinafter "DPC"), owner of the website www.vatican.va (hereinafter "Portal") and which also manages its contents. The Portal uses technology called cookies mainly to make its services simple and efficient for users visiting the Portal

This cookie policy (hereinafter "Cookie Policy"), which must be read in addition to the information provided in the Privacy Policy, which we invite you to view, is intended to describe the types of cookies in general and those used on the Portal, the reasons and conditions of use of cookies and finally their disabling.

2. DEFINITION AND FUNCTION OF COOKIES

Cookies are small files that are sent from a web server to the user's internet browser. The user's internet browser automatically stores them on the computer and automatically sends them back to the server at each subsequent access to the site.

There are various types of cookies, some to make the use of the Portal more effective, others to enable certain features. Cookies allow a page, among other things, to store and retrieve information on the browsing habits of a user or his device and, depending on the information contained and how the device is used, they can be used to recognize the user.

3. CONFIGURATION OF COOKIES

Cookies can be classified according to different parameters. They can be own cookies and third party cookies depending on who is the person who manages the domain from which the cookies are sent; and session cookies and persistent cookies depending on the period of time during which they remain stored in the user's terminal.

Depending on the purpose for which the data obtained is processed, the following types of cookies can be defined:

- Technical cookies;

- Analysis or analytical cookies;

- Behavioral advertising or profiling cookies;

- Cookies related to Social Network widgets;

- Cookies related to Social Buttons.

• Technical cookies

These cookies allow the user to navigate through the website or the application and the use of the different options or services existing in the same (videos to facilitate purchases, social networks, etc.). These cookies, always sent by the web server, are necessary to correctly view the site and any products / services offered, unless the user changes the settings in their browser thus affecting the display of the site pages.

• Analysis or analytical cookies

These cookies allow anonymous analysis of the behaviour of website users and that allow you to measure user activity and to develop browsing profiles also in order to improve websites.

Cookies in this category are usually used to collect information on the use of the site. This information is generally used for anonymous statistical analysis in order to improve the use of the site and to make the content more interesting and relevant to the wishes of the user. This type of cookie collects anonymous data on user activity. Analytical cookies can be sent from the site itself or, as often happens, from third-party domains. In the event that these cookies are sent from third-party domains external to the site, these are used in order to collect information on the use of the site by users anonymously such as: pages visited, time spent, origins of the traffic of origin, geographic origin.

• Behavioral advertising or profiling cookies

These cookies allow the management of advertising spaces on the website based on the user's behaviour and browsing habits, from which the profile is obtained, thus making it possible to customize the advertising displayed in the user's browser. These are the cookies necessary to create user profiles in order to send advertising messages in line with the preferences expressed by the user within the pages of the site.

• Cookies related to Social Network widgets

These cookies facilitate the user in interacting and / or sharing content through social networks. The presence of plugins involves the transmission of cookies to and from all sites managed by third parties. The management of information collected by "third parties" is governed by the relevant policies to which you are referred.

• Cookies related to Social Buttons

Social Buttons are those particular "buttons" on the site that represent social network icons (for example, Twitter) and allow users who are browsing to interact with a "click" directly with social networks.

Social Buttons are links that refer to the social network accounts shown. Therefore, third-party cookies are not installed through the use of these buttons. In addition, the site does not share any browsing information or user data acquired from social networks accessible thanks to Social Buttons.

4. COOKIES USED ON THE WEBSITE

Analyzing in detail the cookies present in our Portal allow us to substantially analyze the use of the services and content provided by the Portal to optimize the browsing experience and make statistical analyzes.

The cookies used in the Portal are technical and analytical and are both their own and those of third parties.

Our first-party cookies are exclusively technical and are used exclusively to allow correct navigation on the Portal.

Third-party cookies are both technical, related to the display of videos on the portal via YouTube, Facebook, and analysis, linked instead to navigation and belonging to Google Analytics.

Cookies are activated whenever a new user (hereinafter "User") accesses the Portal or in the event that the cookies have been deleted.

For Google Analytics cookies, consent can be expressed by the User in one or more of the following ways:

- through specific configurations of the browser used or the related computer programs used to navigate the pages that make up the Portal;

- by changing the settings in the use of third-party services. To deactivate the personalized ads for Google Analytics it is necessary to access the page: https://www.google.it/settings/ads and deactivate it.

5. CONFIGURATION OF COOKIES ACCORDING TO THE BROWSER

Below we indicate to the User the links where to find information on how cookies can be configured and managed in the main browsers:

- Internet Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-delete-cookie-files-in-internet-explorer-bca9446f-d873-78de-77ba-d42645fa52fc

- Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/clear-cookies-and-site-data-firefox

- Chrome: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

- Safari: https://support.apple.com/it-it/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac

6. CONSENT TO COOKIES AND PORTAL FUNCTIONING

The User may withdraw consent to the use of cookies at any time.

To do this, the User must disable cookies on the Portal by following the instructions in the previous section depending on the browser used.

The withdrawal of consent and, therefore, the deactivation of certain cookies, could prevent the use of some features and the display of some parts of the Portal.

7. UPDATE AND MODIFICATION

This cookie policy will automatically accept the regulatory changes that may intervene on the matter. The DPC reserves the right to modify this cookie policy to update its content which will be made known and subject to new acceptance by the User.