
In order to track an individual from one website to another, the different sites all have to share some code from a third party website. Third party cookiesĪ website can only read the cookies that it has created – it cannot read cookies created by other sites.

Of course, if anyone wants to track you, being able to identify two or more actions as coming from the same source is also the fundamental thing.

Without this, short-term memory websites would just be brochures – there would be no Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Amazon, eBay, Wikipedia, PayPal, WordPress, Gmail… If all your page requests contain the same unique cookie the website can see that they’re all coming from the same source.īeing able to link individual, stateless actions together like this is a fundamental building block of the web. However, if the website gives you a unique cookie the first time you ask for a page, you’ll give it back every time you ask for another page. Simplistically, a basic website will behave as if it’s the first time you’ve ever been there every single time you ask it for a web page. The HTTP protocol – the language used by web browsers to talk to websites – is stateless and no information is retained between any two HTTP events.

Your browser will store the cookies until they expire and will include them in any messages it sends to the website they originally came from.Ĭookies are a normal and extremely important part of the way the web operates because they enable a sort of short-term memory. Why cookies are importantĬookies are very small pieces of information given to your web browser by the sites you visit.

If you already know what cookies are all about then you can skip the next bit and go straight to the instructions. This quick fix will show you how to clear out cookies and the cookie-like things that can be used to track you online.
