How web cookies are beneficial?
How web cookies are beneficial?
What is a web cookie?
A cookie is a small text file provided by a website that is saved permanently or temporarily on the server of the user . Thanks to the cookies, a website can monitor your preferences. They are also widely used for digital advertising purposes.
Why cookies are so useful?
Cookies are used to keep a web session “status.” Cookies make browsing on the internet faster and easier. These cookies enable the server to know who you are. Based on previous visits, the browsing interface is tailored to your use of a website, personalized. It means that you do not have to enter the same data every time you are browsing the internet.
For example, you are shopping online, looking at some products but not buying them. The next time you will go on that website, the products you looked at will be saved so that you can purchase them later without having to research them a second time.
Types of web cookies
1. First-party cookies
The first-party cookies are set and monitored by the website you are visiting. They are used to measure page clicks, interactions, the number of users, your language preference, ...
The site owners have primarily access to information obtained by first-party cookies, which may subsequently be exchanged with advertisers or ad targeting agencies. In addition, analytical methods – like Google Analytics – are used to understand consumer behaviour by first-party cookies and view this in a tabular or graphical way to understand the users.
2. Third-party cookies
Domains that are not personally visited by the user are described as third-party cookies. This occurs as publishers incorporate elements from third parties (e.g., chat, networking plugins or ads) to their pages. Once enabled, third-party cookies can also track users and store their ad tracking and behavioural advertising information.
For example: Let's assume that one of your blogs has a link to a Youtube channel. Whenever this link is clicked, the user's browser receives a YouTube cookie. This cookie will help trace the user journey to the end.
3. Session cookies
Cookies are either instantly expired or a few seconds after the user has left the web browser. These cookies, among other applications, are being used by e-commerce websites to save the product put in the shopping cart, to keep the users signed in, and to measure the users' session (how long they keep their session open, on which links do they click, ...).
4. Persistent cookies
Persistent cookies are saved longer than the session ones. However, they have an expiration date. You can close and open your computer again, those cookies will remain until that date chosen by the web server. They help track how the users are using a website to know how to improve the user’s experience.
Stable cookies, i.e., cookies with encrypted files, are only possible on the HTTPS websites. The one thing that makes stable cookies easier is the purchase and payment pages of e-commerce sites. Likewise, stable cookies must be used for security purposes by online banking websites.
To conclude, the cookies are useful to the user experience so he will live a personalized one and the brands and website can use those cookies to advertise in an efficient way, by targeting the users who have an interest for their products or services. Through the cookies, the companies can have access to personal information and behaviour which can be intrusive for the users. It is important to read exactly which type of information a website will collect to be able to control the data we are giving away.
Senora Walter Fernandes
PCMAG. 2021. Definition of cookie. [online] Available at: <https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/cookie> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
Google.com. 2021. how are web cookies benefical - Google Search. [online] Available at: <https://urlz.fr/fgk3> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
Behera, R., 2021. What Are Cookies? Different Types of Web Cookies, Explained. [online] Adpushup.com. Available at: <https://www.adpushup.com/blog/types-of-cookies/> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
Google.com. 2021. on what format are cookies stored - Google Search. [online] Available at: <https://urlz.fr/fgk2> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
Cookiepro, 2020, What is a persistent cookie? Cookiepro.com, [online] Available at: <https://www.cookiepro.com/knowledge/what-is-a-persistent-cookie> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
Hi Dubchies!
ReplyDeleteThis article is interesting. We always have to consent to a lot of cookies and so giving away personal information that we might want to keep for ourselves. So many times, it happened that I looked at a pair of shoes on a website without buying and afterwards, I saw ads for those shoes when I was on Facebook or Instagram. Sometimes it can be scary to know that when you browse, you are watched and monitored.
My question is how can we control the cookies and the data we are giving away to the website?
Thank you for your answer!
Hi Maudy, thanks for your comment!
DeleteYou are true, it sometimes can be scary, and the problem is that deleting the cookies on our server will make us lose the personalized experience like being able to have direct access to the products we like, our passwords, … What we want is to be able to keep those advantages without feeling like the cookies are taking away a little bit of our privacy.
Some web extensions have been developed to help control those cookies like « click&clean extension » for Google Chrome and Firefox in which you can manually choose which type of cookies you want. For example, you can get rid of the third-party cookies.
I invite you to look at the article below which explains well how you can control cookies regarding the browser you are using.
https://uk.pcmag.com/how-to/40872/how-to-control-and-delete-cookies-on-your-browser
I hope that I helped you, thank you for reading us!
Hi Dubchies!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this article very helpful! I didn’t know all of those different types of cookies. Users must know what kind of cookies they agreed to and why they are useful. Otherwise, it might sound kind of intrusive sometimes.
However, I think that now we are too used to see cookie messages on websites, that we don’t even pay attention or check what we accepted. It is important to know that some cookies are useful to the proper functioning of the websites and that others are collected for marketing reasons in order to provide the best user experience.
Have a nice day!
Emma Griffon