Cookie policy

1. What cookies are

A cookie is a small text file placed on your device when you visit a website. Similar technologies include local storage, which stores information in your browser rather than sending it back to the server with each request. Cookies can be set by the website you are visiting (first-party) or by another domain whose content is embedded in the page (third-party).

Under Belgian law implementing the ePrivacy Directive, and under the GDPR, we may place cookies that are strictly necessary for the website to function without your consent. Any other cookie requires your prior, freely given consent.

2. Our approach

We keep this deliberately minimal. This website sets no advertising, retargeting, profiling or social media tracking cookies, and we do not sell or share data about your visit with advertising networks. Refusing optional cookies is exactly as easy as accepting them: the banner shown on your first visit offers 'Essential only' and 'Accept analytics' as equal choices, and no optional cookie is set before you choose.

3. Strictly necessary cookies and storage

These are set without consent because the site cannot work properly without them:

• so-cookie-consent (local storage, first party) — records which choice you made on the cookie banner, so that you are not asked again on every page. Retained for twelve months.
• Session and security storage (first party) — maintains your session, protects against cross-site request forgery, and supports load balancing. Expires when you close your browser, or within twenty-four hours.
• Language preference (first party) — remembers the site language you selected. Retained for twelve months.

4. Optional analytics cookies

If you choose 'Accept analytics', we set privacy-friendly analytics cookies that help us see which pages are read and where visitors struggle to find information. IP addresses are truncated before storage, no cross-site identifier is used, and the data is not used to identify you or combined with any matter file.

• _so_analytics_id (first party) — distinguishes one visit from another in aggregate statistics. Retained for thirteen months.
• _so_analytics_session (first party) — groups page views into a single visit. Retained for thirty minutes of inactivity.

5. Third-party content

Our contact page embeds a map served by OpenStreetMap so that you can find the Brussels office. Loading the map means your browser contacts openstreetmap.org, which receives your IP address and may set its own cookies under its own policy. We do not control those cookies. No other third-party content is embedded on this site; we do not use social media widgets, chat widgets or web fonts that track you across sites.

6. Changing or withdrawing your consent

You can withdraw consent at any time by clearing this site's cookies and local storage in your browser settings, which causes the banner to be shown again on your next visit so that you can choose differently. Withdrawal has no effect on the lawfulness of processing carried out beforehand.

Your browser also lets you block or delete cookies generally, usually under Settings, then Privacy. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may prevent parts of this site from working, for example by causing the consent banner to reappear on every page.

7. Questions and complaints

Questions about this policy can be sent to enquiries@solicitorsorganisation.com, marked for the attention of the data protection officer. If you are not satisfied with our response you may complain to the Belgian Data Protection Authority, Rue de la Presse 35, 1000 Brussels, or to the supervisory authority in your own country.

8. Changes

Where we introduce a new cookie that requires consent, we update this policy and ask for consent again before the cookie is set. The date of the current version is shown at the top of this page.