1. What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file placed on your device by a website to store information about your visit. Similar technologies — including local storage, session storage, IndexedDB, pixel tags, web beacons, tracking URLs, and device-fingerprinting techniques — operate on the same principle and are treated equivalently by this Policy. We refer to all of them collectively as "cookies" below.
Cookies can be "first-party" (set by deepsnow.tech) or "third-party" (set by another domain we have embedded — for example, an analytics provider). They can be "session" (deleted when you close your browser) or "persistent" (with a defined expiry date). We use cookies sparingly and only where they serve a defined purpose under this Policy.
2. Our consent management approach
We operate a Consent Management Platform integrated with Google Consent Mode v2. Before you make a choice, the only cookies set by the Site are those classified as strictly necessary (see Section 3). Analytics and any other non-essential cookies are blocked until you grant consent. You can view, withdraw, or change your consent at any time via the "Cookie preferences" link in the footer. We log your consent choice (with a timestamp and the policy version you accepted) so we can demonstrate compliance if challenged — this consent record itself is processed under the legal basis of legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR).
3. Detailed cookie inventory
| Name / Pattern | Type | Purpose | Expiry | Consent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEXT_LOCALE | First-party, strictly necessary | Remembers your language preference (en/it/de/fr) across pages. | 1 year | Not required |
| ds_consent | First-party, strictly necessary | Stores your cookie-consent choices and the policy version you accepted. | 12 months | Not required |
| Investor Portal session token | First-party, strictly necessary | Maintains an authenticated session in the Investor Portal. Set only after successful sign-in. | Session | Not required |
| _ga, _ga_<container> | First-party, analytics | Google Analytics 4 — distinguishes users for aggregate Site-usage analytics with IP anonymisation enabled. No advertising signals. | Up to 14 months | Required |
| _gid | First-party, analytics | Google Analytics — short-lived session distinguisher. | 24 hours | Required |
| Marketing / advertising cookies | — | Not used. We do not engage in cross-context behavioural advertising or maintain advertising profiles. No advertising or remarketing pixels are installed on the Site. | — | — |
4. Legal basis for setting cookies
Under the ePrivacy Directive as transposed in Ireland, storing or accessing information on a user’s device requires the user’s prior, informed, freely given, specific consent — except where strictly necessary for the provision of a service explicitly requested by the user. We rely on this exception only for cookies that are objectively essential for the Site to function (language preference, security, authentication, consent record). For all other cookies — including analytics — we rely on your consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR, captured via our Consent Management Platform.
5. How to manage cookies
You can withdraw or change your cookie consent at any time via the "Cookie preferences" link in the footer of any page. Changes take effect immediately and persist across visits on the same device and browser. You can also block, delete, or limit cookies through your browser settings — instructions are available in the help section of each major browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Arc). Some browsers honour the "Global Privacy Control" (GPC) signal; where we detect GPC, we treat it as a withdrawal of consent for non-essential cookies.
Blocking strictly-necessary cookies will prevent parts of the Site from functioning, including the Investor Portal and the language switcher. We do not use cookies to circumvent your browser’s privacy settings, restore deleted cookies via fingerprinting, or "respawn" cookies through any other technique.
6. Do Not Track
The "Do Not Track" (DNT) browser header is not standardised and is being phased out by major browser vendors. We do not respond to DNT signals. We do honour the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as described in Section 5.
7. Third-party cookies and sub-processors
Where third-party cookies are set (currently only by Google Analytics 4 when you consent), the third party is acting as our data processor under a written DPA. We do not enable advertising features, do not link analytics data to advertising platforms, and do not permit our processors to use Site data for their own marketing or product-development purposes. For the current list of sub-processors and their processing locations, see the Privacy Policy.
8. Updates
We update this Policy when we add or remove a cookie, change a cookie’s purpose, or change a sub-processor. Material changes will be highlighted at the top of this page and, if the change affects a consent-based cookie, we will re-prompt for your consent. The "Last updated" date will be revised.
9. Contact
Cookie-related questions: privacy@deepsnow.tech or the contact form on the homepage (Topic: Privacy / GDPR).