Trackingarmageddon

02/20/2020

What are cookies and what are the differences between them? (Part 2/4)

No, this isn't about the Cookie Monster's favorite food. By now, many people have an idea of what cookies are. Nevertheless, here is a very brief explanation: Cookies are small, unique pieces of text data that are stored on the individual memory of each computer. Their purpose is, for example, to offer users of various websites the service of not having to log in again after every click on the website, but instead having their login data constantly retrieved and verified via the server of the respective website. Cookies enable the computer to remember who the user is. We also have cookies and the browser cache to thank for the fact that shopping carts in online shops are not deleted immediately when the browser is closed, and these are just two of countless examples. It's actually a nice service, isn't it?

What is the problem with cookies?

Cookies are actually designed so that they can be read within a website (“first-party cookies”), but not by other websites. Nevertheless, everyone knows that the GAFAs (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) of this world and ad networks happily track our browsing behavior outside their websites. You can read about exactly how this works and why they can do it here. This has to do with so-called third-party cookies.

It quickly becomes clear that this creates a dilemma:

On the one hand, it invades the user's privacy, as tracking tools such as Google Analytics or etracker are used to create user profiles that can be used to segment and categorize users. This helps with statistical analyses of, among other things, the traffic rate on your own website or how users landed on the website. Based on this, interest-based advertising can then be placed that is tailored to the individual user.
On the other hand, however, most companies, including small and medium-sized ones, depend on this tracked data and the associated advertising opportunities to increase their customer base and thus their sales. Digital advertising has become almost unavoidable these days. However, the tracking information described above is necessary in order to place online advertising as efficiently as possible.

However, various providers such as Mozilla Firefox and Safari have already gradually integrated anti-tracking tools into their browsers, and now tech giant Google is set to follow suit with its Chrome browser. These three browsers alone cover over 85% of all users. If the removal of tracking options also results in the blocking or abolition of third-party cookies, online advertisers will soon face a major challenge.

Differences between “bad cookies” and those that are absolutely necessary

Nevertheless, there are still differences between which cookies are affected and which are not. This is because there are not only “bad cookies,” but also many cookies that enable websites to function and provide a good user experience. The different types of first-party cookies are therefore distinguished as follows:

Necessary cookies: These are also called “session cookies.” These cookies enable, for example, the storage of login data or shopping carts in online shops. Text entries would also not be possible without these cookies. Surfing the Internet would be a nightmare, as each time you visit the same website, you would be treated as a new visitor who has never been to that website before. These cookies are therefore essential and should not, cannot, and must not be disabled. They do not affect your privacy and do not violate it in accordance with current case law.

Functional cookies: Similar to necessary cookies, these types of cookies generate a minimum level of user experience, for example by storing language selections or certain page configurations.
Performance cookies: These cookies enable the website operator to find out, for example, how long the website takes to load or how it behaves in different browsers. They are therefore also important for improving the user experience.
Advertising/marketing cookies: These cookies are used exclusively to display interest-based advertising to individual users. However, the information for this is only stored on the website and is not passed on to third parties. However, according to current legislation, users should have the option to object to the use of these cookies.

First-party cookies therefore only collect information about how the user behaves on the respective website. Based on these findings, the website operator can then make improvements to the website and develop marketing strategies.

In contrast, there are third-party cookies. The main purpose of these is the advertising and targeting mentioned above. Here, user information is collected across websites and then stored in the respective browser. If a user visits website B, which uses the same advertising provider as website A, they are recognized with the help of third-party cookies. This allows the user's surfing behavior to be tracked so that tailored advertising offers can be displayed across websites. This means that non-anonymized information is sent to different servers, which is precisely why these cookies are criticized by data protection lawyers.

Curious? Part three of our series will be out next week, so set a reminder in your calendar!