What Are Cookies and How Are They Used in the Digital World

Today, almost every online service uses technologies that help make user interaction more convenient and personalized. One of these technologies is cookies. In recent years, they have been in the spotlight due to growing privacy requirements and changing approaches to working with user data. Companies are increasingly moving to a more transparent model — the so-called privacy first marketing, where the balance between efficiency and ethics is important. In this article, you will learn about the features of cookies and the importance of data protection.

What Are Cookies?

“We use cookies.” This notification can be found on almost every resource. Users automatically agree with it, without thinking about what it is and why it is needed.

Cookies are small text files that contain some service information. The browser creates them automatically when the user visits the site, and the transfer is carried out by clicking on the “OK” or “Accept” button in the pop-up notification window.

Cookies can contain the following information:

• the name of the site that transferred the cookie to the user’s device;
• when and from what device the person visited the page on the Internet;
• date and time of expiration of the cookie;
• preferences: font size, language or currency;
• previously entered text;
• browser and OS version;
• user location and IP address;
• transitions and clicks;
• a unique identifier with which the system can recognize a person as the same visitor and not a new one.

How Do Cookies Work?

Cookies are necessary to store certain information on a computer or other device. However, these files themselves are not functional and are only important for web servers.

When a person visits a website, the server looks for a suitable cookie on the device, examines it, and extracts the necessary information for the session. Authentication occurs without re-entering the login and password.

Here is how it works step by step:

• You visit the website.
• The browser sends a request, simultaneously looking for its cookie on your device.
• If the cookie is found, it is sent to the server along with the URL, which reads and uses the information.
• If the cookie is missing, the file is not sent, and the server simply considers the user a new visitor.

What Are Cookies Used For?

Modern cookies are used to solve a number of problems. Let’s consider the main ones:

• Authorization. Logins and passwords from cookie files are substituted into authorization forms, which allows users to avoid entering them manually each time the page is refreshed.
• Profile settings. Previously set parameters are saved when the user revisits the page, which is very convenient: geolocation, interface language, currency, color scheme, fonts, enabled and disabled options, etc.
• Location. By saving the region, search engines generate results taking into account the person’s location. For example, if you are in Paris and want to order a pizza, then the search will show establishments in Paris for the corresponding request.
• Comparison and selection of goods. Cookie technology allows you to put a product in the basket, leave, and then return and continue working (compare different products, report new purchases, or place an order for the selected product). All this is possible without authorization, i.e., without re-entering the login and password.
• Personalization. Thanks to cookies, websites, applications, and services, remember your preferences and select content based on them. For example, they show ads for products that you were previously interested in, and offer music and videos similar to those you recently listened to or watched.
• Monitoring transactions and actions. Cookies record all the information about the actions you performed on the Internet: reactions, entered but unsent message text, responses to polls, attached materials, etc.
• Accelerated loading. Cookies save data from websites and services that you have already viewed. When you visit such resources again, the pages load faster.

Almost all of the listed cookie functions are also relevant for marketers. The collected information about users and their actions helps optimize the advertising strategy and make Internet marketing more effective. Competent analytics cannot do without cookies.

However, the trend towards privacy-first in marketing encourages brands to use cookies more consciously and transparently, ensuring respect for users’ personal information.

Using Cookies in Marketing

Marketers use cookies primarily for tracking. These service files can be used to extract information about users for subsequent analysis. Marketing requires information about what Internet resources people visit, what pages they view, what they are interested in, what links they click, etc.

All information in marketing is divided into three types:

• Primary. This is the personal data of clients. Companies receive it when people fill out questionnaires and forms. They are saved in a CRM system or a separate project database but not in cookies.
• Secondary. This is anonymous data from an advertising system or web analytics about user actions on a website. They are needed to conduct advertising campaigns and attract clients.
• Third-party. These are cookies that were collected by the analytics system thanks to third-party contractors. This information can be used to learn additional details about the lives of customers, such as whether the user has children, what resources they visited, at what time, etc.

Based on the collected and analyzed information, marketers create segmented relevant ads for customers. And the more ads a site has on various platforms, the more user data can be transferred to the server.

Conclusion

Cookies remain an important element of the digital environment, but the approach to their use is changing. Against the backdrop of the rejection of third-party cookies, businesses are looking for new solutions that meet modern privacy standards. One of the leaders in this area is TeqBlaze, a company offering advanced programmatic advertising tools adapted to the principles of privacy-first trend in marketing and focused on the future without losing user trust.