What are computer cookies?
21st century technology jargon can often seem like an endless stream of complicated and sometimes quite funny words, however here at Winzum we are committed to help you guys understand as much as you can. Because here’s the thing: in many cases if you cannot understand what things like phishing or computer cookies are, you are actually putting your online safety at risk.
Let’s take the latter thing for an example – computer cookies. These are things that pretty much everybody would have encountered online by now, and contrary to what you might think they don’t actually have anything to do with the tasty cookies that they derive their name from.
Oh no, computer cookies are actually an essential component of online browsing, however their true role isn’t something that most people know about. We love to educate at Winzum, so hold tight for a rundown on what computer cookies really are.
An overview of computer cookies
Contrary to what you might think, computer cookies are actually incredible simple things. In essence, computer cookies are just very simple text files, which usually hold information about a website, and also a unique user ID (i.e. you, the website user).
So, the first time that you visit a website a cookie is downloaded onto your browsing device, which can then be used each time you revisit the site to streamline the process. Computer cookies are used for a range of reasons, from keeping your checkout basket up-to-date, all the way through to showing you new videos on YouTube that you haven’t seen before.
The history of computer cookies
Computer cookies were invented all the way back in 1994 by a particularly innovative online junky called Lou Montulli, who was trying to aid early websites establish better relationships with their customers.
With computer cookies websites could remember things about their customers for the first time, thereby ensuring that the whole online shopping experience was as smooth as possible. Since then computer cookies have been used more and more for various reasons, however new laws have also been put in place to make sure that computer cookies are not being abused.
The good stuff about computer cookies
The best thing about computer cookies by far is the fact that they can save various things about your activity on certain websites, making the whole experience way more streamlined, and also tailor-made too. For example, ever wondered how YouTube knows exactly which videos you want to watch? That’ll be the cookies!
Also, how do you think social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook know what posts you have already seen or not? That’ll be the cookies too!
The not-so-good stuff about computer cookies
But here’s the thing: it’s not all good with computer cookies, because you have to remember that they are also essentially ways for companies to gather personal information about all of their users. Although this makes things easier sometimes, it also opens you up to all manner of advertisements amongst other things.
The fairly recent GDPR legislation was brought in to counteract some of the bad things about computer cookies though, so it isn’t all bad! You can find more information on that here [What is GDPR?].