How it works
A web cookie is not a snack. It is a tiny note a page can save on a device, a bit like a coat check ticket.
Some notes help, like keeping your basket full or remembering your language.
Some pages let an ad company save a note too, and the notes follow a device from page to page. That is tracking.
A grown-up helps choose the settings.
Worked examples
A helpful note
- A shop page saves a note.
- It keeps your basket full.
- A note can also remember your language or keep you signed in.
A following note
- An ad company saves a note on many pages.
- It sees which pages a device visits, then picks ads to match.
- That is why dinosaur ads followed Amara. It was not mind reading.