Cookie policy

1. What cookies are

A cookie is a small file a website puts on your device to remember something, your language for instance. The same rules apply to comparable techniques such as local storage, pixels and third-party scripts.

2. The rules

Article 129 of the Belgian Electronic Communications Act allows only what is strictly necessary to deliver the service you asked for to be set without consent. Everything else — analytics, advertising, tracking — is allowed only after your free, informed and active consent, under the same consent rules as the GDPR.

Refusing has to be as easy as accepting, carrying on browsing without choosing is not consent, and you may withdraw your choice at any time.

3. What hexel sets

This cookie is strictly necessary and is set without consent:

• NEXT_LOCALE — remembers whether you read the site in Dutch, French or English. Retention: one year. Without it the site opens in Dutch on every visit.

4. Analytics cookies

hexel uses Google Analytics to see how many people visit the site and which pages they read. Those cookies only appear after you click Accept in the banner. If you refuse, or do nothing, they stay off: Google's Consent Mode defaults to denied and is only flipped by your choice.

Once you consent, Google Analytics sets these cookies:

• _ga: recognises a returning visitor by a random number. Retention: two years.
• _ga_*: keeps track of your visit so the pages of one visit are grouped together. Retention: two years.

These are cookies of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. More about that in Google's privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

5. Advertising cookies

hexel uses Google Ads to measure and adjust its advertising. Those cookies only appear after you click Accept in the banner. If you refuse, or do nothing, they stay off: Google's Consent Mode defaults to denied and is only flipped by your choice.

These are cookies of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. They link your visit to an ad and measure whether an enquiry follows. Retention: up to two years, depending on the cookie. More about that in Google's privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

6. Remembering your choice

Your choice itself is kept in the hexel_consent cookie for six months. That is a functional cookie: without it we would have to ask again on every page.

7. Managing your choice

You can always inspect, block or delete cookies through your browser settings. Delete the language cookie and the site opens in Dutch again.

Where a banner is shown, you can revisit your choice at any time through Cookie preferences at the bottom of every page.

Block everything and this site still works. No feature depends on a non-essential cookie.