What are cookies?

Cookies are files that contain information about the user. The cookie mechanism was introduced to distinguish visiting users in the HTTP protocol.

It is thanks to them, among others Our visits to the website and our preferences (e.g. language of the website, products in the online store or even place of residence) are remembered.

Owners of websites through cookies are able to determine the interests of their users, create website traffic statistics and display advertisements for products that may be of interest to us.

In short, thanks to cookies, websites and advertisements placed on them are tailored for us individually, making them much more attractive.

How do cookies work?

They are saved at the request of the server or a script on the user's browser side. Contrary to the name, a single cookie is often not saved as one file on the disk (Internet Explorer stores all cookies from a given site in one file, while browsers like Firefox and Chrome store it in the SQLite database).

We can divide them into session (temporary) files, permanent and third-party cookies. Session files are stored until logging out of the website or turning off the browser, and the latter for a certain time, which is specified in the cookie file. Third-party cookies are files that come from, among others. from advertising servers, service providers or company servers. It is this type that is used in advertising.

Cookies can be deleted by the user at any time.

In 2012, the European Union imposed an obligation on website owners to inform them about the use of cookies on the website (the regulations effectively entered into force on March 22, 2013).