Cookies Explained
Everytime we visit websites online we get a pop-up button or a bar that says "This website uses cookies". Most of the people don't understand what this is and just click the 'Agree' button to proceed to the website. If you have always been wondering what exactly are cookies, in this article we will explain this in simple words so that next time you see a cookie pop-up you know what this is about and what you can do to protect your privacy.
What are cookies?
Cookies allow websites to recognize your computer as you browse the web and remember things about you and your browsing history. A cookie is a small piece of data that is stored on a user's computer while browsing the web. They keep track of user's activity in order to show targeted information and ads to these users. This is why if you search for shoes on Amazon, you might get later that day shoes ads in other websites that you visit.
Why where they created?
Cookies can make life easier for internet users, by remembering e.g. login information so that we don't need to give our password every single time we visit a website. Imagine if every time you wanted to see a Facebook post you would need to give your login and password; this would be very frustrating right? Cookies help to avoid this problem and make our life easier in this sense. The main reason cookies were created though is because the way the internet was initially created does not support advanced functionalities that websites offer today (e.g. online shopping, etc); cookies are a way to make internet work for our needs and activities we do now daily online.
A cookie is a small piece of data following you and remembering your browsing activity
Why do websites use them?
Without cookies, websites are "blind" - they can't see what you have done before on the internet, what are you looking for and how they can adapt themselves to make you a customer. They also don't have any information on how many people visit the website, what they do, what products are the most popular, and how the website is generally used. This knowledge allows websites to optimize their functionality to increase their chances to get customers and people to use them - on itself this is not bad, and this is what we mean when we say "functional cookies". The problem starts to happen when websites have a lot of data on users and sell these data to other companies that create customer profiling and segmentation for marketing. Think of it this way - if you are not paying for the product, then you are the product (someone else is paying to have your data).
How many cookies do websites use?
The number of cookies a website uses depends on multiple factors, such as how much data they are collecting and how many third-party websites have access to these data. For example, if a small e-commerce website is using some external CRM system to manage their orders and customers, this external system will also have cookies on the e-commerce website. The more integrations a website has with other systems, the more cookies usually will be present and more data is shared. The graphic below gives you an indication of how many cookies are included in 4 well-known websites.
Average cookies used by common websites
What can I do to protect my privacy?
Thankfully, websites are legally obliged to show their cookie policy when they show their cookie pop-up windows. However, these policies are not always written in a very readable format, which makes that almost no one reads them (similar situation with the general terms and conditions). There are some concrete and easy steps you can take to protect your privacy:
If you don't want to be tracked, use incognito mode whenever possible or browsers such as Brave
Update your browser preferences to make them private
You can block unnecessary cookies by making some easy changes in your browser settings
Clear your browser cache and cookies regularly
Websites usually pre-select all of the cookies in their cookie pop-ups so if you just click accept, you are accepting everything. Change this by unflagging any unnecessary cookies and proceed with only the "functional cookies". Some websites with good cookie policies will indicate this as "Use only necessary cookies".
An example of a good cookie policy allowing users to choose how many cookies they accept
Last but not least, make better browsing choices. The internet is not anonymous and there are a lot of dangers luring. The same way you trust specific partners in real life, you should also do this online with the websites you visit and buy from. Our browser plugin can help you make better choices by showing you the cookies and personal data used by the websites you visit, and how they are used. By enabling you to see this, we give you back the power to choose trustworthy and ethical sites which respect your data and your privacy.
