What is a cookie?
No, these are not grandma's cookies and there is no chocolate in it for you. And no, when a site asks you to accept cookies, it is not offering you a biscuit so you can browse in peace, relaxed, with a cup of tea in hand. Too bad.
How it works
In computing, a cookie is a small text file that a site asks your browser to keep. On each new visit, your browser sends it back. This is how a site, which by nature forgets everything from one page to the next, manages to remember you.
The file contains no program and no virus, and it cannot run anything on your phone. Most often it holds a simple identifier, a kind of cloakroom ticket: the site keeps your information on its side, and the cookie lets it know whom that information belongs to.
The four categories of cookies
Not all cookies serve the same purpose.
- Session cookies: they keep you logged in. Without them, you would have to type your password at every click and your basket would empty on every page.
- Preference cookies: they remember your choices (language, dark mode, delivery city).
- Audience measurement cookies: they tell the site how many people visit it and which pages they look at.
- Advertising cookies: often set by companies other than the site you are visiting, they follow your browsing from site to site to show you targeted ads. This is why an article you read on one site then follows you around social networks.
Why you are asked for your consent
The first three categories are useful. The fourth raises more questions, because it can reconstruct part of your online habits. This is why many data protection regulations require sites to ask for your consent, and why these banners now appear almost everywhere.
A few simple habits to stay in control
- Read the banner instead of clicking "Accept all" out of habit. A "Decline" or "Customize" option often exists, sometimes in smaller print.
- Clear your cookies regularly from your browser settings.
- Use private browsing on a shared device so that nobody picks up your session after you.
On this site
Anointed Romances only uses cookies that are necessary for it to work: the login session, form protection, the language you chose and your reading device.
Your light or dark theme and the text size are kept on your device, not on our servers.
There are no advertising cookies. If audience measurement were added, it would only be switched on with your consent, and declining would have no effect on your access or your subscription.
In short
Cookies are neither spies by nature nor harmless treats: they are memory tools.