[LAST UPDATED: 8th April 2024]
Introduction
To make this website work properly, and to provide the best possible experience services to our site visitors, we place small data files called cookies on your device. This policy provides you with information about cookies and how to control them for this website.
What is a Cookie?
A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie, to develop a record of the user’s online activity. Cookies on this site may be delivered in a first party (set by the Discover Ireland website) or third-party (set by another website) context and may also be set in association with emails you receive from us.
Cookies help us improve your experience when using the website. They also help us understand how people use our site, such as which pages are most popular, so that we can improve how we serve our website users and clients.
Cookies Used on This Site
Essential Cookies: These cookies are essential for enabling user movement around our website. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing purposes and do not remember where you have been on the internet. This category of cookies cannot be disabled. The table below provides more information about these cookies.
| Cookie Name | Details |
| CookieConsent | Expiry: 1 year Purpose: Stores the user's cookie consent state for the current domain. |
| ai_session | Source: Microsoft Application Insights Expiry: Session Purpose: This is a unique anonymous session identifier cookie used to monitor site performance. |
| ai_user | Source: Microsoft Application Insights Expiry: 1 year Purpose: This is a unique user identifier cookie enabling counting of the number of users accessing the application over time. It is used to monitor site performance. |
Preference Cookies: Preference cookies enable a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in. There are no preference cookies on this website.
Analytics Cookies
We use Google Analytics cookies to collect information about how visitors use our website. These cookies collect information in the aggregate to give us insight into how our website is being used. We anonymise IP addresses in Google Analytics, and the anonymised data is transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
We use Hotjar cookies in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymised user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf. For further details, please see the ‘about Hotjar’ section of Hotjar’s support site.
The table below provides more information about these cookies.
| Cookie Name | Details |
| _ga | Source: Google Analytics Expiry: 2 years Purpose: Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. How to Block: Open the Cookie Consent Tool to set your preferences or delete these cookies through your browser settings. |
| _gid | Source: Google Analytics Expiry: 1 day Purpose: Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. How to Block: Open the Cookie Consent Tool to set your preferences or delete these cookies through your browser settings. |
| _gat | Source: Google Analytics Expiry: 1 day Purpose: Used by Google Analytics to determine if the visitor is involved in their marketing experiments. How to Block: Open the Cookie Consent Tool to set your preferences or delete these cookies through your browser settings. |
| _gaexp | Source: Google Analytics Expiry: 57 days Purpose: Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate. How to Block: Open the Cookie Consent Tool to set your preferences or delete these cookies through your browser settings. |
| collect | Source: Google Analytics Expiry: Session Purpose: Used to send data to Google Analytics about the visitor's device and behaviour. Tracks the visitor across devices and marketing channels. How to Block: Open the Cookie Consent Tool to set your preferences or delete these cookies through your browser settings. |
| _hjClosedSurveyInvites, hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid | Source: Hotjar Expiry: 1 year Purpose: Hotjar is an analytics and feedback tool that we use to understand how our website is used and improve usability. The cookies carry no personally identifiable information. How to Block: Open the Cookie Consent Tool to set your preferences or delete these cookies through your browser settings. |
| _hjFirstSeen, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjIncludedInSessionSample | Source: Hotjar Expiry: 1 day Purpose: Hotjar is an analytics and feedback tool that we use to understand how our website is used and improve usability. The cookies carry no personally identifiable information. How to Block: Open the Cookie Consent Tool to set your preferences or delete these cookies through your browser settings. |
| _hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjViewportId, _hjRecordingLastActivity, _hjRecordingEnabled | Source: Hotjar Expiry: Session Purpose: Hotjar is an analytics and feedback tool that we use to understand how our website is used and improve usability. The cookies carry no personally identifiable information. How to Block: Open the Cookie Consent Tool to set your preferences or delete these cookies through your browser settings. |
| _conv_r, _conv_v, _conv_s | Source: Convert Experiences Expiry: _conv_v = 6 months _conv_s = Session based (i.e. expires after the current session has ended) Purpose: Convert Experiences is an A/B testing tool that we use to serve experiments on the site. |
To view an overview of the privacy of Google Analytics cookies please click here for Google Support.
You may install a Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on by clicking here for Google Tools.
To view an overview of the privacy of Hotjar cookies please click here for Hotjar Support.
To view an overview of Hotjar cookies please click here for Hotjar Support.
Adverts may be delivered to you based on your online or mobile behaviour (on Discover Ireland’s website and other websites), your search activity, your responses to one of our advertisements or e-mails, the pages you visit, your general geographic location, or other information. These ads may appear on our sites or on third-party websites. The technology partners with whom we work to help us conduct interest-based advertising may be members of self-regulatory associations such as:
- Network Advertising Initiative (NAI): http://www.optout.networkadvertising.org
- Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA): http://www.aboutads.info/choices
For sites directed at persons located in the European Union, we may work with technology partners who are members of the European Interactive Digital Adverting Alliance (EDAA): http://www.youronlinechoices.eu and http://www.edaa.eu.
You may also see advertisements for third-parties on Discover Ireland sites or other websites or platforms, based on your visits to, and activities on the Discover Ireland’s website and other sites.
Marketing Cookies
Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers.
The table below provides more information about these cookies.
| Cookie Name | Details |
| NID, IDE, _gcl_au | Source: Google Expiry: 6 months, 13 months, 90 days Purpose: Used for these purposes to show Google Ads in Google services. _gcl_au cookie takes information in ad clicks and stores it in a first-party cookie so that conversions can be attributed outside the landing page. |
| _fbp | Source: Meta Platforms, Inc. Expiry: 90 days Purpose: Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers. |
Personalisation Cookies
These cookies, which are part of the broader analytics category, are key to providing a tailored browsing experience, adapting the website to your unique preferences and behaviours. Unlike essential or preference cookies, personalisation cookies fine-tune the content and offers you see to better match your interests. They are powered by platforms like Bloomreach Engagement, they track your interactions to deliver a more customized and relevant online experience, ensuring that the content you encounter is specifically tailored to your tastes and needs.
| Cookie Name | Details |
| __exponea_etc__ | Source: Bloomreach Engagement Expiry: 7 days - 3 years (depends on browser) Purpose: Customer's Bloomreach Engagement generated client-side cookie |
| xnpe_[project-token] | Source: Bloomreach Engagement Expiry: 3 years Purpose: Customer's Bloomreach Engagement generated server-side cookie. Works in combination with custom tracking domain (CTD) to maintain user identity for browsers with shorter client-side cookie lifespans like Safari. |
| __exponea_time2__ | Source: Bloomreach Engagement Expiry: 60 minutes Purpose: Measures timestamp offset between browser and server time |
| __exponea_ab_[ABTestName]__ | Source: Bloomreach Engagement Expiry: 7 days - 3 years (depends on browser) Purpose: Stores the variant name returned for an A/B test |
Third Party Websites' Cookies
When using our website, you may be directed to other websites for such activities such as accessing relevant YouTube videos, or if you choose to take a look at our social media platforms. These websites may use their own cookies. We do not have control over the placement of cookies by other websites you visit, even if you are directed to them from our website.
How to Control and Delete Cookies
Consent Tool: The Discover Ireland Cookie Consent Tool can be utilised to customise your cookie preferences. The tool will record when you have consented to our cookie policy and will ask for consent again annually to ensure users stay up-to-date with changes to our cookie and privacy policies. The consent tool specifically controls the marketing cookies and analytical cookies set by using our primary public website https://www.discoverireland.ie. Essential cookies cannot be disabled, nor can the tool be used to block cookies on third-party websites linked from our website.
Using Your Browser: Many of the cookies used on our website and through emails can be enabled or disabled through our consent tool or by disabling the cookies through your browser. To disable cookies through your browser, follow the instructions usually located within the “Help,” “Tools” or “Edit” menus in your browser. Please note that disabling a cookie or category of cookies does not delete the cookie from your browser unless manually completed through your browser function.
You can also use a browser plug-in such as Ghostery* from Cliqz International GmbH or the Tracking Protection List* from TRUSTe. A browser plug-in is a piece of software which adds extra capabilities to your browser—for example, to play video or scan for viruses.
Cookies that Have Been Set in the Past
Collection of your data from our analytics cookies can be deleted. If cookies are deleted, the information collected prior to the preference change may still be used, however, we will stop using the disabled cookie to collect any further information from your user experience. For our marketing cookie, when a user opts out of tracking, a new cookie is placed to prevent users from being tracked.
What About Other Tracking Technologies?
Cookies are not the only way to recognise or track visitors to a website. Discover Ireland’s may use other, similar technologies from time to time, like web beacons (sometimes called "tracking pixels" or "clear gifs"). These are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognise when someone has visited our web sites or opened an e-mail containing a Newsletter and/or eZine that we have sent them. In many instances, these technologies are reliant on cookies to function properly, and so declining cookies will impair their functioning. Your engagement with the content of the communication (such as which links you click on) will also be recorded.
We use this information in aggregated form to give us an indication of the popularity of content and to help us make decisions about future content and formatting. We may also use the information to publish more content relevant to certain categories of subscribers in future issues and to unsubscribe recipients who haven’t opened our e-mails for a while.
Questions?
For more information, feel free to contact our Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@failteireland.ie
