Cookies are small files that websites send to your browser. They then track and monitor the sites you visit and your browsing activity on these pages. Learn more.
Maybe you've seen thatcookienotification when you log onto Airbnb's home page to book a vacation home. Or maybe it pops up when you visit Adidas.com or Nike.com to buy shoes.
But unless you nevervisit new websites, you've undoubtedly encountered a pop-up notification telling you that the site you are on is using cookies to track you. Thenotification will then ask you to accept these cookies.
This leads to the obvious question: What are cookies?
At their most basic, cookies are small files that websites send to your browser. They then track and monitor the sites you visit and your browsing activity on these pages.Retailers might use cookies to remember what items you've put in your onlineshopping cart, while news sites might use them to remember what stories you'veclicked on in the past. Other sites might use cookies to remember your log-ininformation so that it automatically pops up when you visit the site’s log-inpage.
Companies, advertisers,and marketers say that cookies will optimize your online experience, and thereis some truth to that. A news site can use the information it’s collectedthrough cookies to recommend other stories you might enjoy. A retailer mightuse it to suggest products you might like to buy based on the pages you’ve clickedon its and other sites.
Not all cookies, though,are created equal. There are two main kinds, first-party and third-partycookies. The main difference? First-party cookies live on the website you arecurrently visiting. Third-party cookies are created by websites other than theone you are currently visiting.
Retailers you’ve visitedin the past might use third-party cookies to populate other sites you visitwith ads for their products. The goal is to get you to return to their sites topurchase their products.
What are third-party and first-party cookies and what is their purpose?
Cookies of all kind aregenerally used as marketing and advertising tools. That holds true for bothfirst-party and third-party versions.
That's because cookiesat their most basic are pieces of information that are saved about your online browsingactivities and preferences. This is important information for companies thatwant to increase the odds that you'll buy something when you visit their sites.
How third-party cookies work
Say you go to an onlineclothing store and poke around the site for 20 minutes, scrolling throughphotos of jeans. Cookies allow the retailer to remember the items you've lookedat. When you return to the site, the retailer will show you photos of the itemsyou've looked at in the past and will also show you photos of clothing relatedto your earlier preferences. Again, the goal is to use your past onlineactivity to boost the chances that you'll buy something.
Other sites use cookiesto improve the service they provide. Maybe you visit a weather site and enteryour city name or ZIP code. The site will remember this. Next time you log on,the site will give you the option to click your city name to see personalizedweather information.
When the cookies that dothis are on the site that you are visiting, they're first-party cookies. Butmaybe you move to a different website. You then see adds on this new site fromthe clothing, weather, or news site that you visited yesterday. Or maybe yousee ads from a shoe retailer, weather site, or news provider that you’ve nevervisited. These ads show up because of third-party cookies. Third-party cookies,then, allow companies to send you targeted ads across the internet. It's whysome of the same ads seem to pop up no matter what site you visit.
How are third-party cookies created?
How do websites createthe third-party cookies that follow you around the internet? First, the websitemust send a request to the third party's own server. Usually, the request willbe for an online ad that pops up when you visit other websites.
For example, if youvisited a website for a hotel in Michigan, you might see ads for that samehotel even after you click away and visit other websites. The goal, again, isto get you to go back to that hotel's website and book a room.
Or maybe you visit atourism site that has ads from several hotels, restaurants and attractions.Each of these ads might create their own third-party cookies. The companiesbehind these ads can then track your browsing across the internet. They canalso make sure their ads pop up on other sites you visit.
Are third-party cookies safe?
Cookies are notnecessarily a bad thing. The code behind them will not infect your computer,install adware ormalwareon your device, or alter your devices.
But you might not likethe fact that third-party cookies track your online browsing. These cookiesallow websites to track your activity even if you’re not using their sites. Ifyou think that is an invasion of youronlineprivacy, then you might want to disable cookies.
Should you enable or disable third-party cookies?
When you visit anywebsite, it will store at least one cookie — a first-party cookie — on yourbrowser. This cookie remembers your basic activity on the site.
Most sites storethird-party cookies on your browser, too. If you want to keepsocialmediacompanies, advertisers, and other website operators from trackingyour online browsing, these are the cookies to disable.
It takes different stepsto disable third-party cookies depending on what browser you are using.
Microsoft Edge
To disable third-partycookies on the Microsoft Edge browser, click the gear icon in the upperright-hand corner. Select the “Settings” option in the new menu that pops up. Next,click “View Advanced Settings.” In this menu, find the “Cookies” heading.Select “Block only third-party cookies.”
Chrome
Click the three lines inthe upper right-hand corner of the browser. Next, click “Settings.” In thismenu, click “Show advanced settings.” Click on the “Privacy” heading and thenclick “Content settings …” In this menu, check the box next to “Block third-partycookies and site data.”
Firefox
Click on the three linesin the Firefox browser’s top right-hand corner. In the "Options"menu, choose "Privacy & Security." On the right-hand side of thepage, you’ll then see Firefox's "Content Blocking" choices. Check thecircle next to the "Custom" option. Next, select the checkbox"Cookies." You can then choose "All third-party cookies" inthe drop-down list.
Is there a downside todisabling third-party cookies?
Are there any negativesin disabling third-party cookies? You won’t get ads targeted toward yourbrowsing preferences. Instead, you’ll usually see ads related to whatever siteyou are currently visiting.
You also might not getthe most optimized experience on some sites. For instance, if you disablethird-party cookies, your city might not pop up when you log onto a weathersite.
If you’re concernedabout advertisers and social media sites tracking your online browsing, disabling third-party cookies is probably worth the small inconvenience thatsome websites won’t work as efficiently when you visit them.
Examplesof third-party services that leave cookies
Websites use third-partycookies for different reasons. Ad-retargeting is a key one. In ad-retargeting,websites use third-party cookies to follow consumers who have previouslyvisited their site and show them ads for products and services from that site.
Then there are socialbuttons. These buttons from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and othersocial-media sites allow you to log into these platforms while you're onanother site. You can then use the buttons to share and like the content onthese sites. Most of these social buttons will then place third-party cookies in your browser.
These cookies will thentrack your browsing activity on other sites. When you then log into Facebook,Twitter, and other social media sites, ads from the outside websites youvisited will show up.
How to check if a website uses third-party cookies
Depending on the browser you are using, you can take different steps to see if the website you arevisiting is using third-party cookies.
In Google Chrome, forinstance, start by pressing F12 on your keyboard to open Developer Tools. Youcan also right-click on the website page and choose "Inspect Element"on the menu that appears.
Once you're in theDeveloper Tools page, choose the "Application" tab. Next, click twiceon the "Cookies" section. This will bring up the domain of thewebsite you are on. If you see any other domains in that list, it means thatthe website uses third-party cookies.
For instance, maybe youare on a website called BakingTime.com. If you double click on the"Cookies" section and any other domain besides"BakingTime.com" shows up — such as www.facebook.com orwidgets.itunes.apple.com — the site is using third-party cookies.
If you are using theMicrosoft Edge browser and you want to determine if a site is using third-party cookies, click on the "Settings" option first. Then click "Sitepermissions." Select "Cookies and site data." Once you've openedthis section, click the arrow for "See all cookies and site data."This will show all the cookies saved to your device.
The current state and future of third-party cookies
While third-partycookies have been an important tool for advertisers and marketers, there aresigns that this tool might soon disappear.
Google announced inMarch 2021 that it would stop using cookies on its Chrome browser by 2022. Andin 2019, Mozilla's Firefox browser started blocking third-party cookies bydefault.
This doesn't mean that advertisers won't have tools to target you on the country's most popularbrowsers. Google, in fact, is already testing alternatives to third-partycookies.
Google has createdsomething it is calling its "Federated Learning of Cohorts", or FLOC,proposal. This, Google says, is about finding a third-party cookie alternativethat protects user privacy.
What Google has come upwith is its FLoC proposal. This system, which is pronounced like the word"flock," would put people into groups based on similar browsingbehaviors. This means that advertisers would use only cohort IDs and notindividual user IDs to target them. Web histories of users would be kept on theChrome browser, but Chrome would only provide advertisers with information on acohort that is made up of thousands of individual web surfers.
One cohort might includethousands of users who have browsed alternative music sites. Others mightcontain users who are interested in comics or animation. This, Google says,provides advertisers with a powerful tool while protecting the privacy ofindividual Chrome users.
At the same time,governments have enacted legislation to create civil and criminal penalties for companies, marketers, and others who fail to inform consumers that theirwebsites are using cookies.
This legislationincludes the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which regulates howpersonal information is collected, stored and eliminated. It also includes theCalifornia Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, designed to protect the privacy ofCalifornia consumers. Virginia also recently enacted the Virginia Consumer DataProtection Act. In addition, the Washington Privacy Act and the IllinoisBiometric Information Privacy Act are both getting close to being enacted.
You might not have toworry too much about third-party cookies in the future, then. But you can expectthat companies will likely seek out other ways to track consumers’ browsingactivity. There’s simply too much money to be made for advertisers to not tryto send you targeted ads.
If you’re worried aboutyour online privacy, then, be sure to implement the enhanced privacy measuresoffered by your favorite browser and a virtual private network, or VPN, even ifthird-party cookies slowly fade away.
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