All About Cookies
We have accepted countless cookies on websites and have yet to receive any. For anyone interested, we love Star Crunch Cookies (Chuao Chocolatier has a delicious recipe for these HERE) but will, of course, accept chocolate chip cookies.
All joking aside, do you ever wonder what you’re agreeing to when you say “Accept” to cookies on nearly every website you visit?
In plain terms, a cookie leaves little “crumbs” of information about you on that particular site. This information can be used for marketing or analysis purposes. It gives data to the site owner that allows them to see what’s being clicked and site trends or can help you on future visits because it logs where you’ve been.
Remember that story about Hansel and Gretel and how they left breadcrumbs to find their way back? That is essentially what cookies are doing for you as well. You can set your preferences on most sites, so if you don’t want the next social media site you visit to target you with an ad for the jacket you looked at, you can tell the website not to release anything other than the essential cookies. Just try not to get frustrated when you can’t remember the jacket later and really did want it and can’t find it (or check your browser history!).
Some cookies are necessary for the website to perform, so there will always be some form of “tracking” but it is up to you how much of your information is passed on.
Let’s take a look at the different kinds of cookies.
Essential / Session Cookies. Nothing you can do here, the site needs to collect certain information in order to function properly. These cookies will generally only stay with you while you’re on the site.
Persistent / Marketing Cookies. These follow you after you’ve left a site, so you can go back and find that jacket.
Third-Party / Tracking Cookies. This one is fairly broad. This gives the site owner the right to use your data and give or sell your data to other site owners. In our opinion, it is best to decline this one. It’s a non-essential cookie.
You can always delete cookies in your browser settings, but be careful with this. If you have anything saved, including passwords, or want your frequently visited sites to know you, don’t delete your cookies! No one likes an empty cookie jar.