In short, a cookie is a text file that your browser stores on your computer. When you access a website a small amount of data is passed from the website to your browser (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.) in the form of a small text file (about 4Kb). This little text file is then stored on your computer, tablet, mobile phone hard-drive or memory to be later used by your browser on your return visit. Just like chocolate chip cookies, these could be considered good cookies that help improve user experience.
Besides tasting good, cookies provide a temporary memory about your online preferences saving you time and improving your online experience. Others consider cookies as an intrusive spying tool that tracks your every movement online. You may ask ‘why on earth would you want to do that’? Well, let’s start by telling you the info does not contain personal data. The information collected allows the website to remember your browser or device and deliver a page more tailored to your interests, or the page itself can contain a script which is aware of the data in the cookie and is able to pass on the information from one visit to the website to the next. In other words, the data contained in your cookies gives us a ‘heads up’ of information regarding your use of our website. Information such as page is English language, device type is smartphone/tablet/pc, IP address, browser used, country from, and other demographic data, if you arrived to our site from a linking page or a third party website, first time vs repeat visitor and pages viewed. The information received is in the form of a random id number. It does not contain personal data.
Yes there are 3 main types of cookies you usually encounter on the web. Much like real cookies there are good ones and bad ones. Good cookies make life easier for you as the visitor interacting on or returning to a specific website. Bad cookies (not evil cookies like zombie or flash) are really just "annoying" cookies. For example: Ten websites ago you looked at a dog stroller recommended by a friend. Since that visit you have stroller ads on pretty much anywhere you go on the internet. Yep, a cookie was set that is used as a sales or marketing tool. Ugh!
• Session cookies. These are cookies set that belong to the website or domain you are currently visiting and your browser remains open. They are specific to your current visit and actions taken during your browser session, for example when you shop online. These cookies will remember items in your shopping cart while you continue shopping on the website. When you close your browser, they are deleted.
• Permanent cookies.These are cookies stored on your device that have a set length of time or expiration date. They do not expire when you close your browser or log out. Every time you visit the website where the cookie was generated they are activated. They’re used to remember things like your login info and/or passwords when revisiting the website. Permanent cookies expire when the time stamp on the cookie expires or they are manually deleted.
• Third party cookies.These are cookies set by a website different from the one you are currently visiting (or shown in the address bar). These are cookies set by the third party website with the aim of collecting certain information as number of “likes” and “shares”. These buttons and are not under our control.
The cookies we use are non-essential and do not collect any information that could identify you. We use Google Analytics, a popular web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyze how visitors use the site which in turn helps us to measure how effective our content is, pages that are popular & where improvement is needed. Google collects non-personal information such as how you found or arrived at our website, are you a new or returning visitor, the device used, typical length of stay on the site, did you experience any errors, which pages you visited, length of stay per page, the average number of pages visited, which links did you click, etc. to compile reports on our website activity and internet usage. This information is transmitted to and stored by Google on its servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third parties when required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf.