Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
A STATUS ORANGE WIND warning has been issued for two counties.
The warning has been issued for Galway and Mayo. It kicked in at 9pm and will remain valid until 1am.
Met Éireann has warned that strong southerly winds, veering southwest will reach mean speeds of 65 to 80km/h, with gusts of up to 120km/h for a short period.
Earlier, a Status Orange wind warning was also in place for Cork between 6pm and 9pm.
A Status Yellow wind warning is currently in place for the rest of Ireland. This will remain in place until 3am.
There will be southeast winds, later veering southerly with gusts of between 90 and 110km.
Met Éireann has warned that winds will peak this evening and tonight and that stronger wins are possible in west and southwest coastal areas.
The Salthill in Galway city appears to be one of the worst hit areas this evening, as a storm surge flooded the popular coastal area.
Advertisement
Social media footage captured cars being swamped with water as waves pounded the area during high tide.
Sameh Mohamed, a Galway resident who was caught in the storms, said some of the owners of the vehicles rushed to retrieve them, but said some “are just stuck now”.
The area was closed off by the authorities when the flooding started.
Galway County Council warned residents to “stay indoors”.
“Do not venture outdoors unless absolutely necessary,” the council tweeted.
“Advice is not to venture out. Wind and rain making Salthill area and along coasts treacherous. Trees and debris on many roads. Stay safe!”
The winds are expected to decrease later tonight. Showery rain will gradually clear northwards, with clear spells and isolated showers following.
Lowest temperatures will range between 4 and 8 degrees tonight.
Scattered showers are forecast in the south tomorrow morning. However, Met Érieann has said it will be otherwise dry at first with bright or sunny spells.
Related Reads
Dreaming of a white Christmas? Evelyn Cusack says it looks like conditions will be too mild
Outbreaks of rain are expected to move northwards, turning heavy and possibly prolonged in central and eastern areas later in the day.
Warning to motorists
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) is asking road users to exercise caution while using the roads today in light of the weather warnings.
The following advise has been issued to motorists:
Control of a vehicle may be affected by strong crosswinds. High sided vehicles and motorcyclists are particularly vulnerable to strong winds.
Beware of objects being blown onto the road. Expect road conditions to change quickly in high winds so reduce your speed.
Watch out for falling/fallen debris on the road and vehicles veering across the road.
Drivers should allow extra space allow between themselves and vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and motorcyclists as they may be blown off course by strong winds.
Motorists should also be aware that cyclists may need more road space than normal due to flooding, fallen debris and wind gusts. Give them plenty of space to navigate any obstacles that may be in front of them
Drive with dipped headlights at all times.
If the road ahead is flooded choose another route, do not attempt to drive through it. Flooded roads that appear shallow could be deeper than you think. They may also have trees or branches that have fallen that may not be visible.
Road users should always follow recommended routes and obey signs closing roads to traffic.
After going through water, drive slowly with your foot on the brake pedal for a short distance – this helps to dry the brakes.
In areas affected by the Status Orange warning, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are being asked to consider delaying or cancelling any planned trips.
Elsewhere, they are being asked to wear bright clothing with reflective armbands or a reflective band.
They are being warned to take extra care when crossing the road or cycling in extremely windy conditions as a sudden gust of wind could blow them onto the path of an oncoming vehicle.
The RSA is also advising:
Walk on a footpath where possible and not in the street. If there is a footpath and it is safe to use, look out for falling debris from above, especially in urban areas.
Walk on the right-hand side of the road, facing traffic if there are no footpaths.
Cyclists should ensure that they and their bikes are visible to other road users by investing in a good set of front and rear lights (white at the front, red at the back) and by wearing clothes that help them be seen of their bike.
With reporting by Dominic McGrathand Press Association
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
46 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Who would investigate it, the Gadai, Shatter or PAC? First two are potential suspects and the third was recently castrated. How long before we have our very own Kristallnacht? Ahhh, imagine the splendor as the Blue Shirt march down O’Connells Street to save the Republic.
What has not changed is that the GSOC was still being spied upon.
Instead we are being deflected with who should have said what to whom. Even though the law is clear that their is no legal onus for the GSOC to report this to anyone. So we are being distracted with a moot point.
If the Cabinet believed that this was done by a dissident terror group or bank robbers or traffickers of some kind then it would have a different approach.
As usual in Ireland, instead of a dark sinister conspiracy by an unnamed top secret organisation ( mission impossible Ireland?), it’s looking increasingly like incompetence… In this case GSOC’s, who can’t even state for certain if they were hacked..I can hear the back pedalling from here. Suck on it conspiracy nerds. :).
SeanieRyan, that is the point, there is doubt that there was spying, just watched the head of the GSOC on the news tonight and he referred to the situation as anomalies, said that the Gardai were not suspected…
The whole manner in which GSOC handled this looks like a cock up. I wonder, after looking at all the wild allegations and dark mutterings on this thread tonight, if the conspiracy theorists/ Garda bashers are proven to be wrong, will there be apologies?
“We have been bugged. You might be the one’s that did it and your leader is disgusted that tells the truth to the public or betrays the force in so doing. SO, please investigate yourselves.” Hum maybe they wanted to feed red herrings so as to entrap. Until the Minister gives GSOC access to pulse and ranks it higher than commissioner Ireland will continue to suffer at the hands of corruption and anti-democracy (now what was that called in the 1930′s?)..
FFS face the elephant in the room , people , Its verily obvious who’s behind it!, but nobody wants to face up to the fact, or probably scared & i cant really blame them considering the way some voices were stifled and characters of the outspoken ,muddied,
There”s something rotten to the core in this country as every tribunal, and ‘allowable’ enquiry shows. Penalty points are just a sidetrack laughable sham,
If only we’d a free press and an electorate who cred enough to express a sense of outrage!!!
Should an external agency be hired to carry out an investigation or should police from another EU member state be brought in to investigate the matter?
No agenda Seanie, I just wait for evidence to go along with the headlines to draw any conclusions, according to prime time last night the hacking originated in the uk?GSOC have had no qualms in the past about lambasting the Gardai..if they suspected the Gardai were involved there’d be a lot more noise about it.
If it turns out this story is either bunkum, or that a party other than the Gardai are involved will you come on the journal and say as much?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s enjoyable to have theories, and biases.. But you have to admit GSOC’s handling of this seems a bit tentative compared to their often bullish statements? Hmmmmm?
They should have reported it to the Gardai when they were satisfied there was no misconduct. It’s possible a crime has been committed and they are negligent in not reporting it.
The reason why Shatter or the top level Gardai were not told is crystal clear the ombudsman suspected them of being behind the bugging. Everybody is thinking this but no journalist has come out and said it yet, such is Shatters power in this country.
It sounds to me like the problem might be within GSOC and nothing to do with the guards or the Minister. That’s why they hushed it up…. it’s their F-up.
Maybe lax IT procedures within leading to an Internet intrusion caused this security breach. All it takes is one staff member to download from a dodgy website and malware/phishing software can infect an entire network.
Sounds more likely to be the case to me but of course that won’t inspire the conspiracy theorists.
John, the report from the Sunday Times stated that “government level” technology was used, including GSM cell tower spoofing, equipment for this level of espionage is not commercially available. It is sold by defence companies in Europe and North America via permits to intelligence agencies, military, police and law enforcement only. It can cost half a million dollars to buy.
Those bugs could have been placed years ago Martin, potentially well before the current government. (the fact that they were even discovered could indicate that they were antiquated devices)
Fionán, that couldn’t be correct. The “bugs” discovered were not physical devices as such, they were hacked remotely (via Britain), according to John Mooney, Sunday Times. A security sweep was conducted in 2011, with nothing found, and another last year where 3 security breaches were discovered. This means that between 2011 and 2013, the spying operation began, using “government level” equipment.
Kate, according to the GSOC chief on six one news tonight, there was no specific concern, just a general security sweep. Another one was carried out in 2011 (they were obviously taking their cyber security for granted if they only swept for bugs once a year!). However, in the Irish Times yesterday they did say the GSOC was concerned about the level of leakage of their cases in the media, and thus carried out a sweep. So, who knows the real truth!
You think Gardai spent money on the likes of that?, possibly slight exaggeration on that point, the organisation has always been 10 years behind in IT mostly down to penny pinching. I don’t actually think the Gardai would give that much of a toss really. There’s spoofing going on alright.
Not good enough for GSOC to say there was electronic anomalies – what were these anomalies? Is there conclusive evidence that the place was even bugged?
GSOC’s current complaint made by Claire Daly TD about Gardai leaking stuff to media should be more interesting now that they leaked stuff to the Times.
Ok if they were to tell the GP it was a highly technical jargon related report going into the intricies of computor programming and such that few if anyone outside a electronic counter surveillance would understand.Would thh doubters be happy then??
more like the reason GSOC wont say anything is possibly the KNOW the Who it was when they did it how they did it and knowing some oafs here in this line of work proably left the shop price tags still on the equipment.
It appears that GSOCS propensity for running to their friends in the media in order to promote their own public standing has finally blown up in their face.
Judging by the language used in their press release ” technical and electrical anomalies, that could not be conclusively explained” it appears to be a case of much ado about nothing. Perhaps they would be better contacting an IT company instead of a foreign security company and there friends in the media.
Think you’ve nailed it there willie. A political power play by the ombudsman that got everyone rushing blame the guards. Looks like it’s blown up in their face.
Sorry lads this is not going away yet !! much as the two of you would like it to…. for whatever reasons. Three credible threats were discovered by a highly rated security company who also have worked for the UN. GSOC when they suspected it, thought they could not trust the Gardaí to investigate it or inform the minister for Justice. Stands to reason they considered them as possible suspects.
Who was bugging the GSOC office and why? Why is no one asking that question or proposing who could gain from bugging the GSOC office? Why mention the Garda at all in their statement if they were not suspected for good reason.
No this is not going away……its the beginning of the end for someone’s career. Hopefully not a scapegoat but the real culprit.
Don’t agree the way the GSOC commissioner crawled so publicly as that man did in his press release, refused to answer questions and apologises speaks volumes for me. These guys are normally first in line for the press when it suits them. They got it wrong and he knows it. It was another GSOC publicity attempt except this time their bluff was called. Also convincing me is the way Callinan is publicly calling them out and demanding answers and explanations. I’ve never seen him do that and doubt he would if there was Garda involvement.
@Wille…….GSOC Chairman refused to answer questions….The only question I want him to answer is who does he think bugged his office…the only group he mentioned was the Gardaí saying that he found no evidence of Garda misconduct. That is a carefully chosen statement. That’s him saying It was them but there is no evidence otherwise why mention them at all.
I haven’t heard Shatter answer any questions yet or seen him since this broke.
Look GSOC Chairman was probably threatened by Shatter that’s why he looked shell shocked, Wille nobody is pointing the finger at ordinary Gardaí like yourself but why is Callinan so angry at the GSOC something stinks and we need to get to the bottom of it for the sake of our democracy.
I hope it doesn’t go away. I’d love to know what’s going on here too. But gsoc and the guards are really going at it lately. And this recent episode drew a lot of criticism towards the guards. The way gsoc handled things fed that theory. But now that they’re been pushed for answers, gsoc seems to be clammimg up. They better explain this to the public. I really don’t think the guards are sophisticated enough to have thought this one up. If they did then there should be hell to pay. But so many on here already convinced themselves it was the guards based only on tabloid journalism. I’m gonna reserve judgement.
@colm greene…I agree with most of what you said Colm…. but I don’t think there were any tabloids involved in breaking this story. They are still hung up on the big issues like Garth brooks and the Xfactor.
If a speaker phone is run off an Internet based connection and therefore part of your internal network then yes, you would use firewall software to protect that network.
Once again they display incompadence in handling information! Oh and they also have a leak dripping into a uk based newspaper other than the bug infection in abbey st!!…
Is no one else seeing the sinister attempt to new manage this story? Whether the GSOC told the Minister or not is totally secondary (and Enda Kenny was lying when he said they were obliged to, the wording is they MAY do so) the only issue is who was bugging the office at the time he Gardai were being investigated for removing penalty points for the rich, powerful and well-connected. That’s the story here folks, everything else is a distraction.
And just so there’s no dispute, the article Enda Kenny was qouting is this. “(5) The Ombudsman Commission may make any other reports that it considers appropriate for drawing to the Minister’s attention matters that have come to its notice and that, in its opinion, should, because of their gravity or other exceptional circumstances, be the subject of a special report to the Minister.”
The word MAY is key here. There is no obligation on the GSOC to tell the minister.
Apparently the company running the security sweep are clear that the office was bugged and bugged at a level which would mean that only a nations intelligence agencies would have the means to do it in this way. All the security experts seem clear that it was bugged and they also seem clear who was doing the bugging.
Jim Butler …..The penalty points issue has been around since early last year and the whistle blower were known about shortly after that. So the potential for an inquiry was on the cards ever since Mick Wallace and Clare Daly brought it up in the Dail.
Sorry Patrick
Would you point out where exactly in the Ombudsman’s statement the say that. Especially the part regarding only a national intelligence agency having the means to do it.
The statement says very clearly that their systems weren’t breached. They seem very clear on that. The only ambiguous part is the form of the so called bugging. WTF are electrical anomalies. I bet you’ll find electrical anomalies in most networks.
Sounds like the English security company sold these plonkers a pup and they paid €18k for it. They must have laughed themselves all the way back to Dublin airport. Next time buy a surge protector.
Willie, you totally underestimate the magnitude of this. The equipment used to carry this spying/eavesdropping out was “government level” technology, according to the Sunday Times who broke the story and will have more next weekend. The technology includes a 3G cell network tower spoofing, technology which is only available to military and law enforcement, and costs up to €500k. The British security company that carried out the counterintelligence sweep is regarded as one of Europe’s premier agencies in anti-bugging operations, and €18k is a reasonable figure for a 7-day security sweep coming over from the UK with an enormous amount of TSCM equipment (http://www.iiiweb.net/images/eqpbig/swp_big_1.jpg)
Reg, no I don’t know a lot about it, just what I heard on several news sites today. It’s just my opinion. I’m sure you know a lot more about it than I do.
Willie, I never said my opinion was anything other than that with a few bits of information from other news sites today. Could you show me in the statement where it says that their system wasn’t breached? It says that their databases were not breached. It doesn’t say that their systems were not breached. Two different things.
Hey Willie! You’re so hung up on that statement… which by the way does not confirm or deny the means of bugging. The way I see it is this story is extremely hot to handle and the security guys lifted the lid of what is possibly a massive Pandora’s box. From what I heard on the radio there is more info still to be published about this so i’ll wipe my a#se with all the statements for now…
What I enjoyed most so far is dame Edna’s spectacular foot in mouth with his never ending “knowledge” on everything. Keep it coming!
Fair enough Dave, however if the tech allegedly used was so hi tech and advanced, then tell me why could it not breach the GSOC databases. Seems slightly contradictory don’t you think. I seriously doubt that their systems are so well protected that they would be able to withstand such state of the art equipment.
If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. This turn of phrase about the hi tech government kit been used comes only from a journalist. One who if you look at his articles clearly spends a lot of time talking to his friends in GSOC and has an anti Garda agenda.
To me sounds like someone in GSOC leaked this story knowing full well it was rubbish, now it’d backfired and they are apologising whilst running for cover.
To quote the head of GSOC “3 credible threats were identified ” Who placed them there?? RTE, Callinan, Shatter and the Taoiseach are only asking why they were not informed. They seem not to care who instigated the bugging… if not the Garda. This needs to be picked at and picked at until we know who was behind this.
@Martin Byrne…all of what you say is true, but it doesn’t contradict what I said. GSOC were not investigating the penalty points issue last summer. They began investigating it in the last few weeks when they received a complaint/it was referred to them. That is a pretty simple fact.
Willie, I can’t say why their database wasn’t breached (probably the only bit of good news in all of this). But just because their database was not compromised, that still leaves the alleged eavesdropping on mobile phones, e-mail hacking and the conference phone being listened in on. Whoever carried this out could still have listened in and spied on their computers without accessing the GSOC database (which is probably secure, and would cause an alarm if breached). More to come next weekend in the Sunday Times apparently, we should know more about this in the coming days.
Jim Butler ……..You mean to say that you think that with the extent of the information and conversation on TV after Wallace and Daly and Flanagan spoke in the Dail, the top ranking Garda didn’t sit up and take note ….particularly when Shatter abused his office with the help of the Garda by getting private information on a political rival, that this might get to a stage when we are forced to send this to GSOC and then all the skeletons will come out. He did not get where he is today by not thinking ahead. (I’m not saying he did bug the office but he has got some questions to answer)
Sickening to see this play out, and worse seeing people gobbling up the bullshit they’re being fed. What an absolute rotten-to-the-core, corrupt little cesspit this place is.
It is almost as if the criminal bugging of the Garda Ombudsman Office is a side show to not talking about it.
A massive security breach and the GSOC say nothing to see here folks.
So what if your database wasn’t touched. That doesn’t answer the questions on the listening in on emails or monitoring communications. It sounds like equivocation.
The fact remains that one of Europe’s leading counter surveillance firms, a company that does work for the UN, the Olympics and Govt’s found evidence that a very sophisticated spying operation was carried out against the Ombudsman.
This is being neglected and people are trying to bury this.
This is a major national scandal and outrage that is being white washed over who should have told who what.
Does anyone in Govt. or the media or wider populace actually care that a major criminal act against a State body was uncovered.
How this story is being pr managed is gas. GSOC offices being bugged is becoming secondary. Then there are the cringeable remarks about their own morality and protocols to try and undermine them. This smell to high heaven and there a few spin doctors writing on this thread.
Scandal after scandal after scandal, cover up after cover up after cover up, all aided and abetted by a compliant news media and national broadcaster. Anyone who dissents is decried as a fool, a whinger, a moaner, unintelligent, uninformed. The whole incompetent lot of them in Leinster House should resign, new elections held forthwith. We are being fed a diet of lies and spin on a continuing basis, day in day out. Enough is enough.
All the members of the guards that have posted on this story have used the same line, anyone who says that anything untoward happened is a conspiracy theorist, they never offer a reason why the guards couldn’t do this, they just attack the character of any poster who is critical of them.
If they really didn’t feel they or their superiors had anything to do with this and it was just a stunt by GSOC, why so much opposition to an independent investigation?
As they are so oft to say when looking for new powers, the innocent have nothing to fear.
How do they sound stupid? They had reason to believe that their communications systems were not secure, pro-actively & independently hired a firm which has a proven track record in the area, found anomalies, and secured their networks accordingly.
“Wonder what do the conspiracy theorists think now?”
You mean the professional journalists working for a major respected newspaper? the people who broke this now proved factual story. In your big kids eyes they are now conspiracy theorists. no wonder people laugh at people that use that term. This idiotic term is only ever used to stifle debate in an attempt to falsely discredit people who rightly question authority.
There is no such thing as Independent investigation in this state ….. too many vested interests ….. The GSOC were absolutely correct to bring in an outside agency to assist in their investigations, however they probably should have released their findings sooner notwithstanding the fact that these findings were only concluded around mid December last.
I believe that it says more about the integrity of the GSOC than it does about the Irish Government or any government department or agency who have consistently failed to act on behalf of the Irish people since the foundation of the state.
I actually believe that the Garda commissioner is acting like a ‘deer caught in the headlights’ (Penalty points etc??) he is now running scared and it has more to do with his past than about anything else ….. why doesn’t he do the decent thing and resign.
Guards caught bugging the ombudsman. Got to be a father ted sketch in there. Yeah I know no proof. Widely reported they weren’t getting on though. Naturally enough. Can’t wait to hear Callinan comment on this. Again no proof but man that embarrassing for the guards. Not having their greatest PR spell (Penalty points) at the moment.
The misapprehension springs from the fact that the learned jurists, deceiving themselves as well as others, depict in their books an ideal of government — not as it really is, an assembly of men who oppress their fellow-citizens, but in accordance with the scientific postulate, as a body of men who act as the representatives of the rest of the nation. They have gone on repeating this to others so long that they have ended by believing it themselves, and they really seem to think that justice is one of the duties of governments. History, however, shows us that governments, as seen from the reign of Caesar to those of the two Napoleons and Prince Bismarck, are in their very essence a violation of justice; a man or a body of men having at command an army of trained soldiers, deluded creatures who are ready for any violence, and through whose agency they govern the State, will have no keen sense of the obligation of justice.
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi
The phone hacking scandal in England took no technical skill or knowledge. It was just going on the fact that most people leave 0000 as their Voice mail password.
Anomalies ? If there’s been three anomalies there’s been at least three attempts on security If Joe Bloggin’ Hijack is behind it the government hounds would be out now. We need a proper investigation now. If the ombudsman is denied full-time access to the ‘PULSE’ system something is being hidden. Mr Shatter should be screeching for blood in the form of answers. He is not .Only 3 suspects : The American NSA, An Garda Siochana , The Dept of Justice. Mr Shatter appointed 3 guards shortly before the security “anomalies” He’s got the birthday cake all over his face
So now we are no wiser as to who actually did the bugging of GSOC. It still doesn’t say a lot for the image of the Gardai that most people assumed that they were the ones behind it. I am a bit bothered why it was decided that no further action was to be taken – on whose direction?
If there was covert surveillance carried out by the gardai…how far up would that have had to have been authorised…Callinan…Shatter??? In its statement, the GSOC stated there was no evidence of Garda misconduct…if the surveillance was authorised by the minister then the gardai would have been acting legally, am I completely wrong in thinking this?
'Go before it's too late': Madonna calls on Pope Leo XIV to visit Gaza
6 mins ago
2
Head Injuries
Women's Rugby World Cup to adopt flashing mouthguards to signal head impact
The 42
40 mins ago
426
joanna donnelly
Forecaster who quit role on-air now working on two books - including one with 'personal' focus
17 hrs ago
69.1k
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 220 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage . Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework. The choices you make regarding the purposes and vendors listed in this notice are saved and stored locally on your device for a maximum duration of 1 year.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Social Media Cookies
These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 154 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 201 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 163 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 124 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 125 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 52 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 49 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 181 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 79 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 113 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 119 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 52 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 67 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 38 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 126 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 128 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 96 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 69 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 120 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 108 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say