So you’ve gotten some pop-ups asking you about cookies? But you know they can’t possibly be referring to the sweet treat you like to indulge in this time of year. So what are these internet cookies and how should you handle them? We’ll dive into it all in this post, so keep reading below to learn more!
What Are Cookies?
Cookies are a type of data that a website can collect about what kind of habits you have and what you like from their website. By tracking these behaviors, a website will be able to give you the best user experience while on their site. In most cases, cookies are safe and are a good thing to allow, to get the best results possible when frequenting a site. Cookies do not allow for viruses or similar threats, however, these cookies can potentially be at risk for being hacked which could lead to your browsing history being tracked by the bad guys on the web. In most cases though, there is not a threat when allowing cookies. The sections below will explain more on when you should and should not allow cookies.
When Should I Allow Cookies?
As mentioned above, cookies are usually your friend and are safe to use. They can help make your internet experience more tailored to you and your likes and habits. Most cookies are OK to accept. In your Privacy or History Preferences on your browser, you are more often than not safe to select boxes such as “Allow Local Data to be Set”, “First-Party Cookies”, “Always Allow Session Cookies”, or “Accept Cookies from Sites”. These types of selections will allow the sites you visit to collect data on your experience preferences, but will not allow outsiders to do so.
When Shouldn’t I Allow Cookies?
Some sites allow Third-Party cookies such as advertisements or even pop-ups. These are where the threats can occur more often, and even if there is not a threat, third-party cookies can just get annoying and frustrating. When choosing your cookie preferences, it is best not to allow these types of cookies or to select an option that blocks them.
We hope this post has helped you to better understand the cookies of the internet and how to use them. In case all this talk about cookies has made you hungry, we’ve also included a few cookie recipes for you here to enjoy!
Source: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Internet_For_Dummies/wY69BQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0