What Is a Cookie?
Cookies are small text files that are downloaded to a user's device when they visit a website. They enable the website to recognize the user's device and remember preferences or previous actions. For example, cookies allow an online store to remember previous purchases or a user's language preferences, helping to create a more user-friendly browsing experience.
Privacy and Cookies
Cookies can also be used to analyze website traffic, implement advanced advertising techniques, and track users across different websites to build profiles that may reveal intimate details about their lives. In practice, this often happens without users being fully aware of it, which is why cookies can represent an intrusion into privacy.
For this reason, modern legislation regulates the use of cookies. Cookies are not prohibited, but the rules governing their use have become stricter. The key requirement is that website users must be informed about the use of cookies and be given a choice as to whether they want a website to track their online activities in this way.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
The following is a list of cookies that may, but do not necessarily, appear on websites. These cookies are automatically allowed because websites cannot function properly without them. They are essential for website navigation and ensure that the site's basic processes work correctly.
|
Cookies |
Lifespan |
Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| JSESSIONID, PHPSESSIONID, ASPSESSIONID, etc | Until you leave the website. They are deleted when you exit or log out. | Session cookies track your activity on the website. They ensure that the website remembers what you entered and which pages you visited. Without these cookies, each page would treat you as a new visitor. These cookies do not collect personal data, identify you, or connect to other information stored about you. |
Analytics Cookies
To improve website content and services, tools such as Google Analytics may be used to monitor browsing behavior during visits to the website. These cookies collect anonymous data, which is analyzed together with data from other visitors to understand how the website is used.
|
Group |
Cookies |
Lifespan |
Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | _ga | 2 years | Used by Google Analytics to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. |
| Google Analytics | _ga_* | 1 year | Used to maintain session state by preserving or remembering certain user data. |
| Google Analytics | _gid | 1 day | Used by Google Analytics to store and update a unique value for each visited page. |
| Google Analytics | _gat_gtag_UA_* | 1 minute | Used by Google Analytics to store a unique user ID. |
Advertising Cookies
Advertising cookies play an important role in digital marketing by tracking user behavior and delivering personalized advertisements through their web browser. These are categorized as first-party and third-party cookies, each serving specific purposes for online advertisers.
|
Group |
Cookies |
Lifespan |
Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| _fbp | 3 months |
This cookie tracks a user's visits across different websites and reports this information to Facebook. Facebook can then use the collected data to better understand the user and display more relevant advertisements. The _fbp cookie does not collect personally identifiable information and is installed by Facebook solely to send data back to Facebook. |
Cookies used on our website do not collect any additional personal data to which you have not consented and through which you could be personally identified. Cookies cannot damage your computer, tablet, or mobile phone. They enable our websites to function properly and help us understand which information is most useful to visitors.
Consent
The requirements for valid consent are governed by general data protection legislation, which also applies when assessing the validity of a subscriber's or user's consent to the installation of cookies on their terminal device.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) defines consent as any freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous indication of a data subject's wishes, by which they, through a statement or clear affirmative action, signify agreement to the processing of personal data relating to them.
Managing and Deleting Cookies
If you wish to change how cookies are used in your browser, including blocking or deleting them, you can do so by adjusting your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to accept or reject all cookies, accept only certain types of cookies, or receive a warning when a website wants to store a cookie. You can also easily delete cookies that your browser has already stored.
If you change or delete your browser's cookie files, upgrade or replace your browser or device, you may need to disable cookies again. The process for managing and deleting cookies varies from browser to browser. If you need assistance, please refer to your browser's help documentation.