Cookie Policy
In force from 11 September 2026.
This page explains what appears on your device when you open our site, what it is for, what we control and what we do not. It is written to be read in one go and to leave you with a clear picture rather than the feeling that you have been notified of something.
1. Who runs this site
opengateportugal.com is owned and run by Synthesis Open Gate Portugal Association.
Legal details: SYNTHESIS OPEN GATE PORTUGAL ASSOCIAÇÃO, NIPC 518248941, legal form associação (a non-profit association under Portuguese law), constituted on 27 June 2024, registered address: Rua Pedro Hispano, Número 11, 3º esq.º, 2790-250 Carnaxide, Oeiras, Portugal.
Questions about this page or about your data: info@opengateportugal.com.
2. What a cookie is
A cookie is a small text file a website saves in your browser. It can hold the language you picked, or the fact that you have already made a choice in the consent banner.
The same rules cover related technologies: browser local storage, tracking pixels, and embedded elements from third-party services. From here on, "cookie" means all of those, not just files in the narrow sense.
3. The rule we follow
Essential cookies load straight away, because the site would not open without them. Everything else waits until you agree, and not a moment sooner.
That is what article 5 of Lei n.º 41/2004 (the Portuguese law on privacy in electronic communications, as amended by Lei n.º 46/2012) requires: storing anything on your device, or reading anything already stored there, needs your prior consent, given after you have had clear and complete information. The same article makes an exception for technical storage needed to transmit a communication, or strictly necessary to deliver a service you asked for yourself.
Consent as a legal basis is article 6(1)(a) GDPR. The duty to be able to prove it is article 7(1). Your right to withdraw it at any time, and as easily as you gave it, is article 7(3).
4. Who shows you the consent window
The consent banner on this site runs on Usercentrics for Wix. Its provider, Usercentrics GmbH (Germany), acts as our data processor.
The banner does two things. It genuinely holds back non-essential services until you decide, rather than simply announcing that cookies exist. And it keeps a record of what you chose and when, because without that record we could not demonstrate your consent.
The banner is live and has been checked on the published site in both languages.
5. The categories in the settings window
The banner offers five categories.
Essential. These keep the site running: pages load, forms submit, your session stays secure, and your choice in the banner is not lost when you move to the next page. They cannot be switched off, and the law does not require consent for them.
Unknown. A technical category the banner uses for anything its scan could not place. On our site this category is empty: everything found sorts into the other categories. We check this at every routine review, because the category is assigned by the platform and the app developer, not by the site owner.
Functional. These remember your preferences, or turn on a separate service you choose to use yourself, such as the chat button. They load only with your consent.
Analytical. These show us which pages people read and where they get stuck, so we can fix what is awkward. They load only with your consent.
Marketing. Used by advertising and retargeting tools. The category exists in the banner, but no such tool is connected to the site today. If one is added, we will update this page before it goes live, not after.
6. What is actually running here
The list below comes from a scan of the site on 20 August 2026. It was not written from memory and not copied from someone else's policy.
WIX. Category: Essential. What it does: core platform functions: session, security, language layer, form submission. Set by: Wix.com Ltd.
Wix Chat. Category: Essential. What it does: the chat window and the history of your conversation in it. Set by: Wix.com Ltd.
Usercentrics for Wix. Category: Essential. What it does: the banner itself, and the record of your consent. Set by: Usercentrics GmbH.
Google Maps. Category: Analytical. What it does: the map showing how to reach our meetings. Set by: Google.
Events by Wix. Category: Analytical. What it does: event pages and event registration. Set by: Wix.com Ltd.
WhatsApp button (Certified Code). Category: Functional. What it does: a quick-access button that opens a WhatsApp chat. Set by: Certified Code, a third-party Wix app developer.
7. How confident we are in that list, stated plainly
This is the one place on this page where we talk about our own uncertainty, and we think saying it beats leaving it out.
High confidence. The six components above really do run on this site, are categorised as shown, and are controlled by the banner. That comes from a scan, not from an assumption.
Medium confidence. That the list is complete. The most recent attempt to rescan the site in the Usercentrics console returned an incomplete result: one component instead of six. That is a limitation of the tool, not a sign that anything has left the site. Our next manual rescan becomes available to us on 18 September 2026, and we will run it.
Low confidence, which is why we are not publishing it. The exact names of individual cookie files and the lifetime of each. We could only assemble such a list from other people's reference tables and from guesswork, and a policy that lists the wrong files documents a discrepancy in your own hand. We chose not to.
Where that information does exist. The lifetime and purpose of each service are shown inside the banner itself: open "Cookie settings" and expand the component you are interested in. There the data comes from the provider directly and updates with the service, rather than with this page.
One further note that policies usually leave out. Some third-party apps and embedded code are not controlled by the banner at all: that is how the platform works. We know it, we check the list of installed apps on a schedule, and if we find a component the banner does not hold back, we will do one of two things: remove it, or write it here plainly, before you find out some other way.
8. If you decline
Decline analytical: the map will not load, and part of the event page functionality will not work.
Decline functional: the quick-access WhatsApp button will not work.
Everything that matters stays open to you: the texts, the knowledge base, conference materials, the schedule, event pages, contacts, and the ability to make a donation. Declining does not lock you out and changes nothing in how we deal with you. You can still reach us without the button, at info@opengateportugal.com.
9. Who receives the data
Wix.com Ltd., the platform this site is built on. It processes data on our instructions.
Usercentrics GmbH (Germany), the processor that collects and stores consent records.
Google, when the map loads. The map loads only after you have accepted analytical cookies.
Certified Code and, if you follow the button through, WhatsApp Ireland Limited (part of Meta Platforms, Inc.), if you allowed the functional category and used the chat button.
10. Transfers outside the European Economic Area
Some of these companies may process data outside the EEA. Those transfers rely on the grounds in Chapter V GDPR: European Commission adequacy decisions (article 45 GDPR) and standard contractual clauses (article 46(2)(c) GDPR).
We watch what happens to those mechanisms. If a ground we rely on stops working, we will either move the transfer onto another one or drop the service, and we will say so here.
11. How long your consent record is kept
Three years, and then it is deleted. If you change your choice in the meantime, a new record replaces the old one.
12. Changing your mind
Any time, no explanation needed.
In the banner. The "Cookie settings" button at the bottom of the screen reopens the same window you saw the first time. It also shows what you chose before.
In your browser. Every browser lets you delete stored cookies and block new ones. Look under "Privacy" or "Site settings". Deleting the files also erases the record of your consent, so the banner will appear again next time. That is not a fault.
Withdrawing consent works going forward. It does not undo what was already done while the consent was valid.
13. Your rights
You can ask for access to your data, for corrections or deletion, for processing to be restricted, for your data in a portable format, and you can object to processing. Those are articles 15 to 22 GDPR.
Write to info@opengateportugal.com and we will reply within the one month set by article 12(3) GDPR.
If you believe we got something wrong, you can complain to the Portuguese supervisory authority: Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados, www.cnpd.pt.
14. Related pages
How we handle personal data in general is set out in our Privacy Policy. The rules for using the site are in our Terms and Conditions.
15. Changes to this page
We update this page whenever a service that sets cookies is added to the site, and after every new scan. The date at the top tells you when that last happened.
In force from 11 September 2026.
