You open your browser on your cell phone and, before you can read what's on the page, a pop-up that takes up half the screen swallows up the content behind the following message: this site uses cookies. From there, two options usually appear — accept and customize. And you'll probably choose either one without knowing, after all, what the heck cookies are and what they want from you.
As the Firefox Development Guide, Browser cookies, in their most basic definition, are files or packets that a server sends to a web address. Cookies collect browsing data and can be stored by the browser to send to the website again if requested again. The purpose is simple, and also harmless, to indicate to the server what the user's behavior on that website was, which links they clicked, etc. This way, on the next visit, your experience will be optimized.
The first mention of the term on the internet dates back to the C programming, for Unix, in 1979. The file was referred to as a “magic cookie”. In this definition, the collected data is useless until it is passed back to the requester, like a kind of ticket. But you can understand the name “cookie” as a reference to the trail of crumbs — and in this case, data — that the file leaves behind wherever it goes, guiding the website to understand the user’s path.
Different flavors of cookies
As we’ve seen, cookies are data trackers, but this doesn’t necessarily translate into a privacy risk. The thing is, there are different types of cookies, and while some are vital for a faster website experience, others just want to sell your information to advertisers.
According to Firefox guide, the file is used in three ways. The first is for session management, which gathers all the data that a server should remember. This applies to logins, scores on gaming sites, purchase history in online stores and things like that.
The second is personalization: pages that have customizable designs, colors, and user preferences. This option is especially present when we access platforms, forums, and social networks directly in browsers instead of apps.
Finally, the third use is tracking cookies: these are the ones that record the items that the user looks at, the links that were clicked and their behavior. Basically, their usage history — and that's exactly what makes these trackers so controversial.
The (not so) sad things about cookies — and what comes in their place
What makes cookies so unpleasant is the possibility that they can collect your usage data from other addresses. Known as “third-party cookies,” for a long time this data was obtained without the users’ authorization, which ended up resulting in the regulation of the use of these files in 2002, with the European Union’s Guidelines on Privacy in Electronic Communications. The institution determined that this data needed to be transferred with the user’s consent.
But these trackers may be on their way out. Most browsers block third-party cookies, and some go even further, like Brave and Vivaldi, who consider third-party cookies a threat to the open web.
The announced death of this file format has caused Google to take a step forward with the FLoCs, Federated Learning of Cohorts, a system created specifically to replace third-party cookies. Google's new solution promises to group data into unidentified clusters. But, at least for now, FLoCs face strong resistance, as they may pose an even greater risk to users’ privacy.
Image: #Urban-Photographer/iStock
