Although cookies have become a normal and necessary part of using the internet, new research (opens in new tab) from NordVPN (opens in new tab) has revealed that half of American users 'accept all cookies' on every website they visit.
For those unfamiliar, an HTTP cookie or a browser cookie is a piece of data that's stored in your browser (opens in new tab) whenever you visit a website. With cookies enabled, a website will remember your preferences as well as any small changes you made during your last visit.
While most cookies are safe and used by companies to offer more personalization on their sites, some can be used to track you without your consent. At the same time, cookies can even be spied upon or used to fake the identity of a user so that an attacker can gain access to their online accounts.
Digital privacy expert at NordVPN, Daniel Markuson provided further insight on the dangers posed by cookies in a press release, saying:
“People need to be aware that cookies follow you online. Even if you hide your IP address with a VPN, cookies can track what you do online and form a partial ID of who you are. Moreover, third parties can sell your cookies. Some sites earn revenue by serving third-party cookies. These aren’t functional – their purpose is to turn a profit from your data. Also, cookies are a vulnerability. With the wrong browser settings or when visiting the wrong website, cookies can introduce security vulnerabilities to your browsing experience.”
Preventing cookies from tracking you
The reason that most websites now feature a pop-up at the bottom of the page requesting users to 'Accept all cookies?” is so that the businesses that run them can comply with data privacy laws like GDPR (opens in new tab) in Europe and CCPA (opens in new tab) in California.
Most sites will still allow you to browse and access their content without accepting all cookies, while others let you specify which cookies you want to accept. Still though, if you want to avoid cookies altogether, there are ways to do so. For starters, most browsers have features that let you block unnecessary cookies (opens in new tab) automatically. However, you can take things a step further by browsing using incognito mode. Although it won't protect your privacy, incognito mode (opens in new tab) will allow you to visit sites without saving cookies or your history.
> France hits Google and Facebook with major fines for using cookie trackers (opens in new tab)
> Google's cookie replacement plan just passed a major hurdle (opens in new tab)
> Adobe wants to help businesses survive the death of third-party cookies (opens in new tab)
For additional protection though, you should consider using a VPN (opens in new tab) while browsing to hide your IP address which can be crucial if you want your online searches to remain private. NordVPN also recently rolled out its new Threat Protection (opens in new tab) feature that includes a tracker blocker to prevent third-party cookies from gathering data about your browsing habits and creating a detailed profile on you.
It also might be worth it to use an anonymous browser (opens in new tab) or one with built-in privacy protection like Mozilla Firefox (opens in new tab). When enabled, Firefox's Total Cookie Protection (opens in new tab) feature stops cookies from tracking users across the web by creating a separate cookie jar for each website they visit.
Cookies have long been an important part of the internet but that could soon change as Google has been working on its Privacy Sandbox (opens in new tab) with the aim of replacing cookies for good. Until then though, you should continue to think twice before accepting all cookies on every site you visit.
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