Cookies

Cookies are a common tool used online to learn about and respond to user website activities. They are stored on your device's web browser by the websites you visit. Most websites, web applications and mobile applications use cookies to improve your user experience and deliver relevant ads to you. Whenever you visit a website, the website sends a cookie to the device you're using to access the website. Your device automatically stores the cookie in a file that's located within your web browser. When you revisit a site, the website will respond in a more personalized way, remembering your preferences, providing faster page load times and so forth.

How are Cookies Used?

Cookies have many uses. Membership websites and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter use cookies to remember login credentials (username and password) so you don't have to enter them manually every time you access the website. Cookies can also be used to display custom advertisements based on your previous search history and web browsing behavior. If you've been browsing the Internet searching for travel mugs, then you'll probably see ads for travel mugs on sites that implement custom banner advertisements.

Some businesses run marketing campaigns that are designed so that first-time visitors on the website are shown certain information, while returning visitors are shown different information. Cookies can determine whether you're a first-time visitor or a returning visitor so that the website can display the ads that are most relevant to you.