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If you’ve visited a new website on your phone or computer over the past 18 months or so, you’ve probably seen it: a notification informing you that the page is using cookies to track you and asking you to agree to let it happen. The site invites you to read its “cookie policy,” (which, let’s be honest, you’re not going to do), and it may tell you the tracking is to “enhance” your experience — even though it feels like it’s doing the opposite.
Cookies are small files that websites send to your device that the sites then use to monitor you and remember certain information about you — like what’s in your shopping cart on an e-commerce site, or your login information. These pop-up cookie notices all over the internet are well-meaning and supposed to promote transparency about your online privacy.
To back up a little bit, cookies are pieces of information saved about you when you’re online, and they track you as you browse. So say you go to a weather website and put in your zip code to look up what’s happening in your area; the next time you visit the same site, it will remember your zip code because of cookies. There are first-party cookies that are placed by the site you visit, and then there are third-party cookies, such as those placed by advertisers to see what you’re interested in and in turn serve you ads — even when you leave the original site you visited. (This is how ads follow you around the internet.)
It’s true, cookies do improve your experience. They function as the website’s short-term memory. With each new click you make, cookies help the site identify you as the same person. Imagine every time you add something to your cart and click away, it disappears. Or each time you load a new page on Facebook, you have to log in again. Without cookies, the online world we know today wouldn’t exist.
But that world relies on advertising, which gives three kinds of companies a strong incentive to repurpose cookies to track your online behavior. Brands want to sell products by serving you ads for things you’re likely to buy. Platforms and publishers want to make money by serving those ads when you’re on their site. And middlemen are in the business of ensuring the ads from the brands are delivered to the right people.
A building block of our online world has become a tool to track you wherever you go in it. This video explains how cookies work and what you should know about how they’re being used. We even get a little help from the man who invented them.
Be Safe – Backup Your Data Regularly!
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