Types of Internet Cookies: What You Need to Know

Cookies play a crucial role in how websites operate and personalise user experiences. Whether you are a business owner, marketer, developer, or web user, understanding the different types of cookies is essential. In this article, we will explore different types of internet cookies based on source, duration, necessity, and category. This will help you understand cookies comprehensively and how to manage them for privacy compliance and user experience optimisation.

Internet cookies are small text files that websites store on user devices, like computers, mobile phones, or tablets. They help websites remember details such as user preferences and login details. However, not all cookies are the same. They differ in where they come from, what they do, and how long they last. These differences can impact your experience on a website and your privacy. So, it’s important for website owners to understand the various types of cookies, especially with privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in place.

Let’s look at the different types of internet cookies.

Cookies can be classified based on their origin—whether they are created by the website, a user is visiting or by a third-party service.

First-party cookies

First-party cookies are created and stored by the website a user is currently visiting. These cookies are essential for website functionality and improving the user experience by remembering user preferences, login information, and other settings.

 Key use cases:

• User preferences: First-party cookies store user settings like language or theme preferences, allowing for a personalised experience on return visits.
• User authentication: First-party cookies help websites remember logged-in users, allowing them to stay logged in across sessions without needing to re-enter credentials each time they visit.
• Shopping carts: E-commerce stores use first-party cookies to retain items added to the online shopping cart, even if the user navigates away from the site or closes the browser temporarily.
• Session management: They keep users logged in while they navigate multiple pages.

Limitations:

• Shorter lifespan: Many first-party cookies expire once the user session ends. Persistent cookies can be set to last longer, but users or browsers can still clear them.
• Limited data insights: First-party cookies provide insights only for a single site or domain, making tracking user behaviour across multiple sites difficult, unlike third-party cookies used for advertising.

Third-party cookies

Third-party cookies are set by domains other than the one the user is currently visiting. These cookies are often used for cross-site tracking, advertising, and data collection.  Advertisers use third-party cookies to track user activity across websites and show ads based on browsing history.

Key use cases:

• Analytics across multiple sites: Third-party cookies provide cross-domain analytics, helping website owners understand how users interact with different websites and refine their strategies accordingly.
• Cross-site tracking: Third-party cookies allow advertisers and analytics providers to track users’ browsing behaviour across multiple websites, providing insights into user preferences and interests.
• Targeted advertising: Third-party cookies are used to deliver personalised ads based on the user’s browsing history and interests, improving ad relevance and effectiveness.
• Retargeting ads: Third-party cookies enable retargeting, where users are shown ads for products or services they have previously viewed on other sites.
• User profiling: Third-party cookies help create detailed profiles of users by collecting data across different websites, allowing for more accurate audience segmentation and targeting.

Limitations:

• Privacy concerns: Third-party cookies are often subject to stricter privacy regulations because they track personal data, which can raise data privacy concerns. Major web browsers like Safari and Firefox have phased out support for third-party cookies, and Chrome has introduced Google Privacy Sandbox as an alternative.

Cookies can also be classified by how long they remain on a user’s device. The two primary types are session cookies and persistent cookies.

Session cookies

Session cookies last only for the duration of a user’s visit to a website. Once the web browser is closed, these cookies are automatically deleted. They help websites track user activity during a session, such as keeping a user logged in or remembering items in a shopping cart.

Key use cases:

• User login sessions: Session cookies help maintain a user’s login status across different website pages during a single visit, so they don’t need to log in repeatedly as they browse.
• Shopping cart management: In e-commerce websites, session cookies store items added to the cart during a single browsing session, ensuring the cart’s content remains consistent while the user shops.
• Form submissions: Session cookies temporarily store form data as users move through multi-step forms, preventing data loss if they navigate between steps or pages during the session.
• Security: Session cookies are used to manage secure sessions, particularly in banking or payment platforms, by tracking session IDs and ensuring the session is valid.

Limitations:

• Short lifespan: Session cookies expire once the browser closes, meaning no information is stored for future visits.

Persistent cookies

Persistent cookies remain on a user’s device even after the browser closes. They have an expiration date set by the website, and their primary role is to remember user settings and preferences across sessions. Persistent cookies can last from a few days to several months depending on their configuration.

Key use cases:

• User preferences: These cookies store information such as login details, language settings, and personalised experiences, allowing users to enjoy a seamless browsing experience during future visits.
• Shopping cart retention: In e-commerce, persistent cookies can retain items in a user’s cart between multiple site visits, enabling them to return later and continue shopping without losing the cart items.

Limitations:

• Privacy concerns: Persistent cookies store user data over extended periods, which can raise privacy concerns. They are often used to track browsing history, which may lead to unwanted data collection without proper cookie consent from users.

Cookies are classified as necessary or non-necessary based on whether they are essential for the website’s core functionality.

Necessary cookies

Strictly necessary cookies are critical for the basic functionality of a website. These cookies help manage essential tasks like session management, authentication, and security. Because these cookies are fundamental to a site’s operation, they typically do not require user consent under most privacy regulations and deleting them may break the site.

Key use cases:

• Authentication: Necessary cookies help users stay logged into a site as they browse multiple pages.
• Security: Cookies like secure cookies and HTTP-only cookies protect sensitive information from unauthorised access.
• Site functionality: Necessary cookies ensure that core features of the website work properly, such as navigation, load balancing, form submissions, sessions, and access to secure areas.

Examples:

• Session cookies, first-party cookies, and authentication cookies fall into this category because they maintain the website’s core functionality.

Limitations:

• Limited functionality: Necessary cookies cannot be used for advanced features like cross-site tracking or personalisation.

Non-necessary cookies

Non-necessary cookies are not essential for a website’s basic operation, but they improve user experience and enable functions such as tracking cookies for analytics and marketing purposes. These cookies require user consent, especially under privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

Key use cases:

• Analytics and tracking: Non-necessary cookies are often used to track user behavior on a website, such as pages visited, time spent, and interactions, helping website owners improve user experience and performance.
• Personalisation: These cookies track user behaviour to deliver personalised experiences, including targeted ads.

Examples:

• Third-party cookies, persistent cookies, and tracking cookies typically fall under this category.

Limitations:

• Privacy concerns: Non-necessary cookies, especially those used for cross-site tracking, raise significant privacy issues, as they collect information about users without always being transparent.
• User consent required: Many privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, require websites to obtain explicit consent before using non-necessary cookies, limiting their automatic storage.

Cookies can also be categorised based on their specific function, such as performance, marketing, analytics, functionality, and security.

Analytics cookies

Analytics cookies gather data on how users interact with a website, such as how much time they spend on a web page, what elements they interact with the most, or how they navigate through different sections. These cookies are often used for website optimisation and help website owners improve their performance.

Key use cases:

• Performance measurement: These cookies measure the performance of a website by tracking page visits, load times, bounce rates, and other key metrics, helping businesses optimise the site for a better user experience.
• User segmentation: Analytics cookies allow for user segmentation by grouping users based on their behaviour, location, device, or other criteria, enabling personalised content and marketing strategies.
• Conversion tracking: These cookies track conversions, such as purchases or form submissions, helping businesses measure the success of campaigns.
• Event tracking: Analytics cookies can track specific events, such as clicks on buttons, video views, purchases, or downloads, providing detailed insights into user engagement.

Marketing cookies

Marketing cookies track user activity across websites to deliver targeted ads. These cookies are usually set by third-party services and are essential for creating personalised ads based on user behaviour.

Key use cases:

• Retargeting ads: These cookies ensure that users see ads related to their previous browsing activities, even when they visit other websites.

Performance cookies

Performance cookies track how well a website is functioning, measuring factors like page load times and user interactions. These cookies help website owners detect and fix issues to improve the overall user experience.

Key use cases:

• Optimisation: Performance cookies provide insights into how fast or slow a website is loading, helping owners identify and resolve any technical issues.

Functional cookies

Functional cookies enhance website functionality by enabling non-essential but helpful features. These cookies remember user preferences and provide tailored content based on the user’s past interactions with the website. Unlike necessary cookies, functional cookies improve the site experience but are not necessary for the website to work.

Key use cases:

• Enhancing website functionality: These cookies enable additional website functionalities, such as live chat, interactive tools, or video playback.
• Retaining form inputs: Functional cookies remember information users enter into forms (e.g. contact forms, login fields) so that the data is saved if the user navigates away and returns to the form later.
• Personalised content delivery: Functional cookies help websites display personalised content based on a user’s past interactions or behaviour, such as showing recommended products or articles.

HTTP-only cookies

HTTP-only cookies are designed to enhance the security of cookies by restricting access to them from scripting languages like JavaScript. This prevents sensitive information, such as login credentials or session identifiers, from being accessed or stolen through cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

Key use cases:

• Secure authentication: HTTP-only cookies are often used to secure login credentials and prevent unauthorised access to sensitive data.

In addition to common cookie types, there are niche cookies that present unique challenges, such as supercookies, flash cookies, and zombie cookies.

Supercookies

Supercookies behave similarly to flash cookies but are more persistent and difficult to delete. They are stored outside the browser’s typical cookie storage and can track users even after they delete regular cookies. Supercookies pose significant privacy risks because they are harder to delete, especially when used without explicit user consent.

Flash cookies

Flash cookies, also known as supercookies, are stored outside the browser and often remain on a user’s device even after other cookies are deleted. They can store more data than regular cookies and are used by multimedia applications, such as video players. 

Zombie cookies

Zombie cookies are a type of flash cookie that regenerate themselves after being deleted. They are often used in online gaming or malicious tracking software to prevent users from erasing them. Zombie cookies pose significant security threats because they evade user control, making them difficult to manage.