What exactly are “Browser Cookies”?

A browser cookie is data sent from a website that will be stored on your computer. Typically, these cookies store data such as cart information on shopping websites, login information when you choose to “Remember Me” while logging in to a website, tracking activity across websites, storing customized settings for websites, and potentially other data necessary for special functionality on the website.

Are there different types of cookies?

Yes, there are multiple types of cookies. The most common ones you’ll run in to are Same site cookies, and Third-party cookies. Same Site Cookies are cookies that are created by the site you are visiting currently. These tend to be used to store things such as custom settings, remembering your user login, etc. There are also third-party cookies, created by a separate entity on the page. These are typically created by advertisements and other web banners that are placed on a website for tracking purposes.

Do these cookies ever get removed or deleted?

Sometimes cookies are created with an expiration date, which will remove the cookie after this date expires, but more often then not cookies are generally going to need to be removed manually.

Should I manually clean out my browser’s cookies?

If you are experiencing issues on specific websites, its sometimes worthwhile to delete cookies for that specific site as a troubleshooting step, as it is possible that a particular cookie may have corrupt data for a specific setting. You can also remove cookies for all sites as a last resort option if you are experiencing issues on multiple websites, however, if you proceed with deleting cookies for all websites, be warned that this will forget any remembered logins you may have on websites.

If you are ever experiencing issues with a specific website, or multiple websites, feel free to give SandStorm IT a call at 901-475-0275. We can quickly identify what’s causing your issue and will resolve it swiftly.