This Cookies Policy explains how we, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), use cookies and similar technologies on our website. Please review this Cookie Policy to learn more about what cookies and other tracking technologies are, the types of cookies we use, why we use them and how you can manage the use of cookies.
Please note that you should read this Cookies Policy alongside our Privacy Policy to have a comprehensive understanding of how we process your personal data when you visit our website, as well as how to contact us in case of questions or complaints.
1. What is a cookie and how does the ICRC approach cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. The table below explains the cookies we use and why. The ICRC relies on Matomo Analytics which monitors and evaluates the effectiveness and efficiency of the ICRC’s websites. Matomo Analytics is an open-source analytics platform stored on premise and controlled by the ICRC. The ICRC will not, by default, track the browsing experience of our website visitors. You may, though, choose to consent to contributing your browsing experience on our website for us to produce aggregated statistics.
Matomo Analytics enables the protection of end-user personal data thanks to features such as IP de-identification mechanism that automatically masks a portion of each visitor's IP (Internet Protocol), effectively making it impossible to identify a particular visitor via the sole IP address. Furthermore Matomo Analytics automatically deletes visitors' logs after 14 months. Aggregated data are stored for an indefinite period by the ICRC for analysis purposes. Additional information on privacy measures available through Matomo Analytics can be found here.
The ICRC also relies on Google Analytics 4 which is an analytics service that lets you measure traffic and engagement across your websites and apps. Google Analytics User data are stored for 14 months. Additional information on privacy measures available through Google Analytics can be found here.
2. What cookies do we use and why?
We have split the cookies used on our website into four categories:
- Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are essential for our websites and services to perform basic functions and are necessary for us to operate certain features. As a result, they cannot be switched off in our systems - Preferences / Functionality cookies
These cookies enable the functionality of our services, such as helping you to fill out forms more easily and providing you with features, insights and customized content in conjunction with our plugins. We also use these technologies to remember information about your browser and your preferences. - Statistics cookies
These cookies allow us to optimize performance by collecting information on how users interact with our website, including which pages are visited most, as well as other analytical data. We use these details to improve how our websites function and to understand how users interact with them. - Targeting / Advertising cookies
These cookies are set by us and our advertising partners to provide you with relevant advertising and to understand that content’s effectiveness. They may be used to collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites to predict your preferences and to display more relevant advertisements to you. These cookies also allow a profile to be built about you and your interests and enable personalized ads to be shown to you based on your profile.
More specifically, here is an overview of all the cookies used on our website:
| Data Processing Service |
Category |
Description |
| Alibaba |
Functional |
A technology company offering cloud computing and e-commerce solutions. |
| Alibaba CDN |
Functional |
A content delivery network by Alibaba, improving website speed and performance. |
| BootstrapCDN |
Functional |
Delivers bootstrap assets for faster and reliable user interface loading. |
| Brightcove |
Functional |
A video hosting and analytics platform for seamless video streaming. |
| Cloudflare |
Functional |
Enhances security and performance through web traffic optimization and DDoS protection. |
| DoubleClick Ad |
Marketing |
Google's platform for serving targeted online advertisements. |
| Facebook Pixel |
Marketing |
A tool for tracking and measuring the effectiveness of Facebook advertising campaigns. |
| Facebook Social Plugins |
Marketing |
Enables users to interact with Facebook content directly on the website. |
| GIPHY |
Functional |
Provides animated gifs to enhance visual content on the website. |
| Google Ads |
Marketing |
Manages and delivers targeted online advertisements via google. |
| Google Analytics |
Analytics |
Tracks and reports website traffic for insights on user behaviour. |
| Google Fonts |
Essential |
Offers a library of web fonts to improve website typography. |
| Google Forms |
Functional |
A platform for creating and managing online forms and surveys. |
| Google Maps |
Functional |
Embeds interactive maps for location and navigation purposes. |
| Google Syndication |
Marketing |
Serves ads and other dynamic content through google services. |
| Google Tag Manager |
Essential |
Helps manage website tags for analytics and marketing without coding. |
| gstatic.com |
Essential |
Delivers static content like fonts or libraries to improve website performance. |
| HubSpot |
Marketing |
An inbound marketing platform offering tools for CRM, email marketing, and analytics. |
| jQuery |
Functional |
A JavaScript library simplifying html manipulation and event handling. |
| JW Player |
Functional |
A video player platform for hosting and streaming multimedia content. |
| LinkedIn Insight Tag |
Marketing |
Tracks LinkedIn ad performance and website visitor interactions. |
| LinkedIn Plugin |
Functional |
Allows users to share and interact with LinkedIn content directly on the site. |
| Mapbox |
Functional |
Provides customizable maps and location data for applications. |
| Matomo (self hosted) |
Analytics |
An open-source analytics platform for tracking and reporting website traffic. |
| Microsoft Advertising Remarketing |
Marketing |
Displays personalized ads to users based on their previous interactions. |
| reCAPTCHA |
Functional |
Protects websites from spam and abuse using captcha challenges. |
| Taobao |
Marketing |
A Chinese e-commerce platform connecting buyers with sellers. |
| X Advertising |
Marketing |
Delivers targeted ads to users on the X platform. |
| X Analytics |
Marketing |
Tracks and analyzes engagement with X content and campaigns. |
| X Plugin |
Functional |
Enables interaction with X content, such as tweets and timelines. |
| Vimeo |
Functional |
Hosts and streams high-quality videos for embedding on websites. |
| Vimeo Analytics |
Analytics |
Provides insights and analytics for videos hosted on Vimeo. |
| Yandex |
Analytics |
Offers web analytics and online advertising services for businesses. |
| Youku |
Functional |
A Chinese video hosting platform for streaming and sharing videos. |
| YouTube Video |
Functional |
Embeds YouTube videos for playback directly on the website. |
3. How do I manage my cookie settings?
You have choices on how the ICRC uses cookies and similar technologies when you visit our website. When you first access our site, you will be given the choice to manage your cookie preferences through our cookie consent banner, allowing you to select the cookies you accept.
You can freely refuse preference, analytics and targeting cookies; please note however that, as mentioned above, strictly necessary cookies are necessary for the effective functioning of our website. As a result, should you choose the option to refuse all cookies, please bear in mind that strictly necessary cookies will nevertheless be used.
If you wish to restrict, block or delete the cookies which are set by any websites, you can generally do this through your browser settings. Please find below links describing how to do this on some popular browsers:
4. Changes to this policy
We may update how we use cookies (and this policy) from time to time. So please check regularly to keep up to date with any changes.