Without cookies, a website is like a goldfish who loses its memory every time you visit a new page. Once you visit a new page, it doesn’t remember who you are.
Now this can be a good and a bad thing. Without any memory, a website can’t do a lot of stuff. It can’t let you log in, because it forgets who you are. It can’t let you buy anything, because it forgets what you’re buying.
But it also means it can’t track you. Some websites use cookies to remember what you do on their website, and to target ads at you.
Cookies aren’t automatically good or bad, but it’s worth understanding what you can do about them.
You can turn them off completely, which is a bit like banning all music to prevent another Justin Bieber album. Many websites simply won’t work.
A better option would be to turn off 3rd party cookies, which will stop most websites from sharing information about you. Some browsers – like Safari – do this automatically.
Well over 90% of websites use cookies. Cookies aren’t automatically good or bad, but it’s worth understanding what you can do about them. We recommend reading Osano’s explainer on how cookies work, if you’d like to learn more.