When agreeing to cookies on a website, what exactly am I agreeing to?
In: Technology
First a definition: A cookie is a short piece of data – less than 100 bytes typically – that the server assigned to the browser. Then for each page loaded from the same web site the browsers sends that same cookie value back to the server as a way for the server to say “this is the same browser/person as last time”. This will usually persist as you turn your computer off/on, change internet providers, or just roam between Wifi and cellular in the case of phones.
It’s essential for web pages where you can log in with an account so that you stay associated with your account, but any web site can do it for any reason. Some web sites let you have preferences without an account – these are stored in the cookie in some way. Other web sites just give everyone a unique number in a cookie and let the analytics bot have its way with them.
Since this constitutes user tracking there are privacy laws that get involved and this is the disclaimer. It’s really picked up since the European GDPR law came into effect.
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