What are Cookies?

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Sounds delicious, but you can't eat these cookies.

Read Time: 4 minutes

Summary: Cookies are small text files placed in your computer when you visit a website to collect and store information about you based on your browsing behavior and the information you provide. Although they are not harmful to your computer, some people worry about potential privacy issues and concern themselves with cookies. Read on and learn more about the cookie!

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"This website uses cookies" Do you accept?

We, internet users, have come across this notification more than a few times before when we visit websites. Cookies have been around for some time. While none of us expect to have nice chocolate chip cookies delivered to our doorstep (that would be nice, though), whenever we click "accept," we still want to understand better what accepting a cookie means to us.

Meet the Internet Cookie

Internet cookies are small text files placed in your computer to track your information and browsing behaviour. These tiny trackers are set by websites you visit and functions as your online ID card primarily so they can remember your choices, activities, and preferences. They then profile you with this data so they can customize options, recommendations and your website experience the next time you visit them.

First-party cookies are useful for making your internet experience more efficient and remembering your preferences from your previous visits. Most online stores use these cookies in this manner. Without cookies, the shopping cart you put 12 items in would empty to zero once you leave the website. But with the help of cookies, all your items will still be saved in your cart when you log back in the next day. Thank goodness for cookies!

A peskier example is third-party cookies. Online behaviour data captured by these cookies can be used by companies other than the website to profile internet users for advertising purposes. Let's use online shopping as an example again - the day after you shop for clothes online, you may notice that you see ads for similar clothing to what you were looking at. Thanks to cookies placed by advertisers who want to know what you're interested in and serve you ads catered to your wants.

Are cookies safe?

Don't worry about cookies – they are not harmful to your computers. Cookies won't download a virus or read the email you sent. They are designed to gather and store data about your browsing habits. So, what about your privacy? A cookie can't steal your personal information, but after tracking what you do online, they allow websites to create a very detailed profile about you and your online habits. This profile can place certain advertisements on the websites you visit. Some find this acceptable and even helpful, while others may find it a tad intrusive. Your liking for cookies may depend on how you define "privacy" and what you consider as too much.

Are cookies new?

No, cookies are not new; they have been around since the early 2000s. However, there is a reason why you see more and more cookie pop-ups. The Canadian Privacy Statues and data protection laws and regulations are now enacting stricter legislation on businesses and their use of cookies. As cookies mainly gather and store data about you without your consent, people are becoming more concerned about their privacy, so more regulations are slowly being implemented. Of course, this is a new topic, and there are no specific restrictions concerning cookies under Canadian Privacy Statutes. Still, companies are becoming more transparent to its users on their cookie use, and more websites are now asking for your explicit consent to accept their use of cookies.

What can I do about it?

There are several ways to manage cookies if you want to control your privacy better. Some websites allow you to choose what you will enable them to track. You can put your mind at ease (even just a little) by letting websites know your preferences by ticking or unticking an acceptance box.

Your browser has a few features to control website cookie use. Some have a "private browsing" or "incognito" mode that prevents cookies from collecting data. All browsers can be set to block and delete cookies. However, without cookies, your browsing experience may not be best suited to your preferences since they won't have an online profile of you.

Cookies have become a standard feature of the online landscape, but they can be managed based on how much of your browsing behaviour you are willing to share.

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