What does it mean to "accept the use of cookies"? (2024)

FAQs

What does it mean to "accept the use of cookies"? ›

Accepting all cookies gives third-party entities, like advertisers, your data. Accepting "necessary cookies" helps the website function properly. And closing the box without choosing will either opt you in or out depending on the website's default settings.

Not all cookies are the same. It's a good idea to decline third-party cookies. If you don't decline, the website could sell your browsing data to third parties. Sharing your personal information with third parties without giving you any control over it could also leave you vulnerable.

Are computer cookies safe? A normal cookie from a trusted website is generally safe to accept. Cookies don't contain any identifiable information and are mostly used to ensure you have a smooth browsing experience by remembering your preferences and authenticating your identity.

In general, when you “accept” cookies, you're giving consent for the website to run cookie scripts and similar technologies. This isn't always a bad thing as cookies can be quite useful for various things like playing videos, shopping cart software, showing personalized ads, analytics and more.

It's hard not to notice the ads you see online that seem oddly relevant to your interests. Cookies are the culprits behind this. They allow websites to serve up content and ads based on your past interactions, making your online journey more engaging.

Downloading a cookie-blocking extension is one of the best ways to stop cookie pop-ups, enhance your browsing experience, and improve your digital privacy.

Most of the time, cookies are no big deal. There are a few occasions, though, where you should decline cookies. Don't worry—if you find yourself in a situation where you need to decline or simply want to decline for whatever reason, most websites will work just fine without collecting your information.

Over time, tracking cookies can collect a lot of personal information and behavioural data — they can learn about your location, device information, purchase history, search queries, and much more. Since advertisers can easily gather basic data without users even consenting to it, tracking cookies have a bad rap.

You can choose to delete existing cookies, allow or block all cookies, and set preferences for certain websites.

User's personal information

Cookies track and store personal information about the user, which websites can use in the future. They store data such as name, residential address, email address, and phone number.

Should I block all cookies? ›

If you block all cookies, there are a few downsides. You may not be able to save products inside a shopping cart between sessions, you may have to log into a site every time you open and close your browser, and you may not get tailored ads, but may see irrelevant ads more frequently.

The cache can also cause issues when viewing new versions of previously visited web pages. Deleting the cache and cookies data regularly helps to troubleshoot, helps to increase the loading time of web pages, loads new versions of web pages and increases the performance of your computer.

Cookie check Chrome

In Google Chrome, open an Incognito window and insert the address of your website. Click the lock icon in the browser URL box. Click on cookies. You can also see right here how many cookies are placed.

Cookies contain information such as pages visited on a website, items in the shopping cart, login details, search history and language preferences. They can also collect personally identifiable information such as name, email address, phone number and other personal data that users enter through website forms.

In most cases, it just blocks or hides cookie related pop-ups. When it's needed for the website to work properly, it will automatically accept the cookie policy for you (sometimes it will accept all and sometimes only necessary cookie categories, depending on what's easier to do). It doesn't delete cookies.

Overall, the vast majority of internet users accept cookies. Most – nearly 40% – say they do so blindly, according to a new survey from All About Cookies. A quarter of users say they accept cookies after some research, while one in five accept only some. A mere 18% say they reject all cookies.

Third-party cookies follow you around the web, but they have no impact on user experience. This is why you should always block third-party cookies if given the option. Third-party cookies are also known as tracking cookies, because they “track” your behavior to serve more relevant ads to you.