What is a cookie?

A cookie is a little text file which the website you visit saves on your computer. Cookies are used on many websites to provide a visitor with access to various functions. The information in the cookie can be used to monitor a user’s surfing.

There are two kinds of cookies. One kind saves a file on your computer for a long time. This is used, for example, for functions that tell you what is new since the user last visited that particular website. The other kind of cookie is called a session cookie. During the time you surf a site, this cookie is saved temporarily in the memory of your computer, for example to keep track of what language you have chosen. Session cookies are not stored for a long time on your computer, but disappear when you close your web browser. Our website contains session cookies solely. We use session cookies to optimize searching and browsing, and to keep track of searches and search results from various databases, such as the library catalogue. The only information we keep in the session cookie is a unique identifier that is used to identify different searches in a database. This makes it possible for you to search a database at the same time as other users, without having the searches of other users affect the result of your own search.

What does the Act say?

According to the Electronic Communications Act, which entered into force on 25 July 2003, everybody who visits a website with cookies should be informed about:

• the website containing cookies,
• what these cookies are used for, and
• how cookies can be avoided.