What the title says. I remember, let’s say 10/15 years ago cookies were definitely a thing, but not every website used it. Nowadays you can rarely find a website that doesn’t give you a huge pop-up at visit to tell you you need to accept cookies, and most of these pop-ups cleverly hide the option to reject them/straight up make you deselect every cookie tracker. How come? Why do websites seemingly rely on you accepting their cookies?
In: Technology
Cookies basically allow a site to store information on your computer so it can be preserved and carried over from web page to web page. It’s why, for example, you can visit an online store without logging in, add some items to the basket, and those items are still there when you switch to a different site or close the browser. The cookie the site placed on your PC through your browser maintains that information.
These are what websites classify as “basic functionality” cookies and you usually aren’t allowed to disable them because it would break the functionality of the site. Imagine adding an item to the basket, clicking the “pay now” button and in loading up the payment page, the site forgot what was in your basket.
What people have been making a fuss about are tracking cookies, and cookies which capture more information than is necessary for functionality. Why does the site need to track which browser you’re using, or exactly where you are accessing the site from if all they actually need is a delivery address and card number?
Tracking cookies in particular can be thought of as “spying” on the user: they log which sites they’re visiting, what they’re searching for etc.
These are the types of cookies that can be disabled, often branded as “quality of life” features to make your experience better. This may be true to some extent, but the major driver behind them is that this kind of information is valuable and can be sold to advertisers and marketing agencies. This is also why sites sometimes make it a pain in the ass to reject them.
That “accept all” button looks so tempting when you just want to order some damn books and don’t want to have to mess around with menus.
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