Everything You Need To Know About Internet Cookies
What are Cookies? Why are they called that way? Are they good or bad?
If you’ve ever wondered about these questions then you have come to the right place! Let’s start with the basics!
Internet Cookies: What Are They?
A cookie is a simple text file that is created when you visit websites on the internet. Cookies allow a website to store data regarding your activity (only on that website) so that you can later retrieve it and get a more personalized experience.
For example, when you enter the letter “Y” on your URL bar and it suggests “youtube.com” along with other options, it is done because of cookies. Your browser will contact YouTube’s server and request its home page. Then, it will look on your machine for a cookie file and if it finds it, you’ll see the suggestion appear. If you haven’t visited that website before, there won’t be any cookie data stored and once you visit it for the first time it will start to collect it.
A website can only receive the information it has stored on your computer. It cannot look at any other cookie, nor anything else on your machine.
How Do They Work?
Now that we have cleared what they are, let’s go a step further to explain how they work and why browsers tend to use them.
Websites use cookies to keep track of your activity and your preferences. It may sound a bit invasive, but their goal is to improve and speed up your browsing experience by not needing to ask for the same information multiple times.
They are not programs or viruses that will damage your computer, but there are still some privacy concerns about cookies that need to be addressed.
Fun Fact
Some people believe the name “Internet Cookies” came from the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. In that story, two children that were lost in the woods were able to mark their trail by dropping cookie crumbs behind them. In a way, this tale replicates the idea of internet cookies tracking your activity.
The Problem with Cookies
Cookies by themselves are safe, but it is possible for them to be used for malicious purposes. Not every cookie is the same and some of them, especially third-party cookies, can be potential threats.
Here’s the deal with third-party cookies: As their name suggests, they are stored in your computer by a different website from the one that you are actually visiting.
This means that they are created if the website has pop-up ads or any embedded content from another domain. This grants permission to that domain to create its own cookie on your computer. The problem arises when this domain is found in many different websites that you may encounter.
Given that they keep recollecting data about users, they start creating a behavioral profile that tracks which websites you visit, what things are you interested in, and what are you buying online. This information can be later sold to other companies and used to show targeted ads according to your browsing habits.
Tracking cookies can achieve long term storage of your online activity other than what you do in one website, getting access to details from your browsing history and other patterns.
This idea is very troubling for our privacy. It goes beyond the “improved experience” argument and it violates our right to be anonymous online.
Sure, technically these websites don’t know your name, they only use a unique ID number to build a profile with your data. Nevertheless, many people have shown their discomfort with these practices and the rejection against third-party cookies is constantly growing with more people trying to block and delete their cookies.
What Can We Do To Protect Our Computer?
Like you might have realized by reading this article, not all cookies are a threat. Some of them are very necessary for a website to function properly.
For example, e-commerce sites wouldn’t be able to implement shopping carts without cookies. Each item you add to your cart is stored in the website’s database allowing you to save your choices.
Another case is with YouTube. If you like what you see on your “recommended videos” tab, that is all made possible because of cookies. The website stores the data of what you like and dislike, to offer you a better selection of videos that you might not discover otherwise.
As long as the cookies are specific and original to the website you are visiting they might be safe, but third-party cookies are a whole different story.
The best way to secure your computer against third-party cookies is to use an extension that blocks tracking software from the web. Our team at Online.io has thought of that solution and we are proud to present it to you.
Online gives advertisers a hard time to track you and only you are in control of what is being loaded in the background. We also remove third-party cookies from your computer after each visit so that your data doesn’t fall in the wrong hands.
Not only that, but our extension also comes with malware protection and ad-blocking software thrown into the mix for good measure.
Join us to discover the most complete internet protection that will save you all the troubles and let you enjoy the web like it was meant to be.
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