Last updated: 3 November 2026
This policy explains what personal data grippingstories.com (“Gripping Stories”, “we”) processes when you visit the website, why, and what your rights are. It also lists the cookies and similar technologies the website uses.
1. Who is responsible
The controller of the personal data processed on this website is Bridgestone Europe NV/SA, Da Vincilaan 1, 1930 Zaventem, Belgium, company number (VAT) BE0441.192.820.
Questions or requests about your data: privacy@bridgestone.eu.
2. What we process, why and on what basis
| Purpose | Data | Legal basis | Kept |
|---|---|---|---|
| Running and securing the website (hosting, firewall, blocking abusive traffic) | IP address, browser and device information, the pages requested, time of the request | Legitimate interest (keeping the website available and secure) | Server and security logs: up to 30 days |
| Measuring how the website is used (Google Analytics 4 via Google Tag Manager) | Pseudonymous visitor ID, pages viewed, approximate location, device, browser, referring site | Your consent | event data 2 months, user data 14 months; the cookies last up to 2 years |
| Playing embedded YouTube videos | IP address, browser information and the cookies set by YouTube when you play a video | Your consent (you click play) | See Google’s policy |
| Showing the dealer map (Google Maps) | IP address and browser information, sent to Google when the map loads | Legitimate interest (showing where to buy our tyres) | See Google’s policy |
| Showing text in the right font (Google Fonts) | IP address and browser information, sent to Google when a page loads | Legitimate interest (a consistent, readable design) | See Google’s policy |
| Showing the website in your language (GTranslate) | Your language choice and the page you view | Legitimate interest (making the content accessible in several languages) | Your language choice is kept in your browser |
| Remembering your cookie choice | Your choice and a random ID | Legal obligation / legitimate interest (respecting your choice) | 6 months |
| Redirecting old or mistyped links | The address that was requested (no IP address is stored) | Legitimate interest (keeping links working) | 7 days |
We do not ask you to create an account, and we do not sell your data.
3. Cookies and similar technologies
A cookie is a small file the website or a third party stores in your browser. Similar technologies, such as the browser’s local storage, work in the same way. When you first visit, we ask for your consent for everything that is not strictly necessary. You can change your choice at any time with Cookie settings (also in the footer of every page).
Strictly necessary (no consent needed)
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| gs_cc | grippingstories.com | Remembers your cookie choice | 6 months |
| gt_autoswitch (local storage) | grippingstories.com (GTranslate) | Remembers your language choice | Until you clear your browser data |
Analytics (only with your consent)
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Google Analytics | Tells visitors apart with a pseudonymous number | 2 years |
| _ga_04ZYT2ELT5 | Google Analytics | Keeps the state of your session | 2 years |
| lastExternalReferrer, lastExternalReferrerTime (local storage) | Google tags | Stores the website you came from, if any | Until you clear your browser data |
Embedded content (YouTube)
Some articles contain a YouTube video. The video is not loaded until you click “Play video”. Then your browser connects to YouTube (Google, through its privacy-enhanced address youtube-nocookie.com), which can set cookies such as YSC, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, __Secure-YNID, __Secure-ROLLOUT_TOKEN and VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA (up to 180 days) and can show you personalised content. See the Google privacy policy.
Google Consent Mode
The website uses Google Consent Mode. Until you accept analytics cookies, Google tags are limited: no analytics cookies are set. Google may still receive a few anonymous signals without cookies (for example that a page was opened, with a truncated IP address) to model overall traffic. Your choice is applied as soon as you make it.
4. Who receives your data
- Google (Analytics, Tag Manager, Maps, Fonts, YouTube): Google Ireland Limited, and Google LLC in the United States, which participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
- GTranslate, for the automatic translation of pages.
- Our hosting provider: Hetzner Online GmbH (data centre in Nuremberg, Germany), with the server managed through FlyWP.
- Our website agency (Boem Agency), which maintains the website on our behalf as a processor.
We only share data with these parties as far as needed for the purposes above.
5. Your rights
You have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to its processing, to data portability, and to withdraw a consent at any time (withdrawing does not affect what happened before). Send your request to privacy@bridgestone.eu. We answer within one month.
If you think we handle your data wrongly, you can complain to the data protection authority: the Belgian Data Protection Authority (Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit), www.gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be.
6. Changes
We may update this policy, for example when the website uses a new tool. The date at the top shows the latest version.
