We've all come across pop-up notifications that ask you to accept cookies
before entering a website. Cookies are everywhere online, but what exactly
are they and should you allow them into your browsing life?
What are cookies?
Cookies are small files that websites send to your device that the sites
then use to monitor you and remember certain information about you - like
what
is in your shopping cart on an internet-based shopping site, or your login
information. In general cookies are supposed to be for the benefit of the
website
user and protect your privacy but some of the time its so the website can
track what links you are visiting and in some cases 3rd party cookies can
share
your information so they can advertise products to you in the future even if
you move away from that site.
In certain situations when you reject cookies the website you are trying to
access won't work properly. This is generally the case if that website
relies
on advertising as its main form of income.
If you are a screen reader user, you can usually press B for button until
you hear the accept cookies button and press enter to dismiss the cookies
banner.
Rejecting cookies in some cases can be made more hassle by some websites for
example there will be a link or a button that will say something like click
here to set your cookie preferences followed by a complicated ream of
options. That's why most people just click accept and move on. There are
even extensions
you can download to let your browser know you don't care about cookies to
save time, but we don't recommend this. It is always better to take that
extra
bit of time and stay in control.
Impact of accepting and declining cookies
On reputable websites accepting cookies will give you the best user
experience, as mentioned above when online shopping. Cookies enable the site
to keep
track of all of the items that you have placed in your cart while you
continue to browse. If you have disabled cookies on your browser while
online shopping,
every time you click a new link, the items in your shopping cart would
disappear. In this case cookies are a necessity so rejecting them will make
the
website useless. Some people like to stay logged in to certain websites for
example Facebook or Twitter, or any social media service you visit online
regularly.
If you interact with these services a lot, you probably don't want to be
entering usernames and passwords every time you get a notification so it's
better
to accept cookies to allow yourself to stay logged in automatically.
Clearing cookies
If you want to clear cookies from your device while in a browser like Google
Chrome or Microsoft Edge press control + H and enter on clear browsing data,
tab to cookies and other site data and press spacebar to check the box and
tab to the clear data button and press enter.
NCBI Technology News.
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