Cookie Policy (EU)

1. What this policy covers

1.1 This Cookie Policy explains how Noord Ark AB, company registration number 559546-8348 (“Noord“, “we”, “us”), uses cookies and similar technologies on www.noorddarkness.com and on our booking pages.

1.2 It covers not only cookies but everything that stores information on your device or reads information already there:

• cookies — small text files a website places on your device;
• local storage and session storage — browser storage areas a website can write to and read from;
• tracking pixels and web beacons — small invisible images or scripts that report that a page or email was opened;
• analytics identifiers — identifiers given to your browser or session so activity can be counted or linked;
• embedded third-party content — videos, maps, fonts and similar resources loaded from another provider’s servers, which can set their own cookies and see your IP address;
• the session identifier used by the Noord Companion — see section 7.

1.3 How we use the personal data collected through these technologies is described in our Privacy Policy. This policy deals with the technologies themselves and with your choices.

2. The rules that apply

2.1 Two sets of rules are relevant.

2.2 Storing information on, or reading it from, your device. In Sweden this is governed by the Electronic Communications Act (2022:482), 9 ch. 28 §, which implements Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. It requires your consent before anything is stored on or read from your device, unless that is:

• done solely to transmit a communication over an electronic communications network; or
• strictly necessary to provide a service you have expressly asked for.

2.3 The authority responsible for that rule is Post- och telestyrelsen (PTS).

2.4 Processing the personal data collected. This is governed by the GDPR, supervised in Sweden by Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY). Where a technology needs consent under the rule above, consent is also the legal basis for the processing — we do not fall back on legitimate interests for the same activity.

2.5 The “strictly necessary” exemption is narrow. It covers what is needed for the service you asked for, not what is convenient for us. Analytics, audience measurement, personalisation and advertising are not strictly necessary, however useful they are, and they require consent.

3. The categories we use

3.1 Optional categories are switched off by default. Nothing in the Functional, Analytics or Marketing categories is placed on your device, or read from it, until you have actively consented.

4. Your choices, and how to change them

4.1 The first time you visit, you are shown a cookie banner. From it you can accept all optional categories, reject all of them, or open the settings and choose category by category.

4.2 Accept and Reject are equally prominent and take the same number of clicks. Rejecting is not hidden behind an extra step.

4.3 No optional category is pre-selected. A toggle that is on by default is not consent.

4.4 You can change or withdraw your consent at any time through the Cookie Settings control available on every page. Withdrawing is as easy as consenting. It takes effect for the future and does not make earlier lawful processing unlawful.

4.5 You can also delete or block cookies in your browser settings. If you block necessary cookies, parts of the website may stop working.

4.6 Consent records. When you answer the banner we store a record of what you were shown, what you chose and when. We keep it only as long as needed to demonstrate that valid consent was obtained, and then ask you again.

5. What we treat as “necessary”

5.1 We classify something as Necessary only where the website could not deliver a function you actively asked for without it: delivering and securing pages, preventing abuse, keeping a booking session or form alive while you complete it, and storing your cookie preferences.

5.2 We do not classify as Necessary: analytics of any kind, audience measurement, A/B testing, heat-mapping, session recording, advertising, or embedded third-party content that is not required for something you asked for.

6. What we use

6.1 The tables below list the technologies we use, grouped by category, with the provider and what each one does.

6.2 The complete, current list — including the exact name and lifetime of every cookie — is published in our cookie declaration and updated automatically whenever our website changes. You can see it at any time through the Cookie Settings control. We publish it that way so it stays accurate rather than becoming out of date each time we add or remove something.

6.3 Necessary

6.4 Functional

6.5 Analytics

6.6 Marketing

6.7 Embedded third-party content

Some of our pages include content loaded from another provider’s servers — for example video, maps or similar embedded material. When such content loads, that provider receives your IP address and may set its own cookies, whether or not you interact with it. We treat embedded content of this kind as requiring consent, and it is blocked until you give it. Where content is blocked you will see a placeholder with the option to load it.

7. The Noord Companion

7.1 The Noord Companion is an AI chat assistant on our website. It runs through a plugin we developed, which sends your messages from our own server to an AI agent operated on the Arkus AI platform and displays the response. Your browser does not contact Arkus directly.

7.2 The Companion uses a session identifier stored on your device so that a conversation you have started stays coherent from one message to the next. It exists only for that purpose, lasts only for the session, and is not used for analytics, advertising or profiling. On that basis we treat it as strictly necessary for a service you have actively asked for, and it does not require separate consent.

7.3 Opening or using the Companion does not activate analytics or advertising technologies, and does not cause anything in the Functional, Analytics or Marketing categories to be set before you have consented.

7.4 What happens to the content of your messages after they leave your device is a different question, and it is described in section 7 of our Privacy Policy rather than here.

8. Third parties and international transfers

8.1 Some of the technologies above are set by third parties, which may process the resulting data outside the European Economic Area and for their own purposes under their own privacy policies.

8.2 Where a transfer outside the EEA occurs it is covered by an adequacy decision — including the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the recipient is certified under it — by the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, or by another mechanism permitted under Chapter V GDPR.

8.3 Consenting to a cookie is not by itself a lawful basis for transferring the resulting personal data abroad. The two questions are separate, and we treat them separately.

9. Changes to this Cookie Policy

9.1 We review this policy whenever we add, remove or change a technology on the website, and at least once a year. The cookie declaration referred to in 6.2 updates automatically.

9.2 Where a change introduces a new non-essential technology or a new purpose, we ask for consent again rather than relying on consent given for something else.

10. Contact

Questions about this Cookie Policy: hello@noorddarkness.com, or Noord Ark AB, Mailbox 2347, 111 75 Stockholm, Sweden.

You can complain about the storing of information on your device to Post- och telestyrelsen (PTS), www.pts.se, and about the processing of your personal data to Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY), www.imy.se.