Friday 12 June 2015

1st & 3rd Party Cookies:

Who wants a cookie?
What are cookies? Here are a few over-lapping definitions;
   A small data file placed on your computer by a website that you visit.
   A piece of code placed in your browser by a website server.
         A text file placed on a hard drive to store and transmit information to the server of websites (re)visited from that browser / computer.

What is a (third-party) cookie?

A cookie is a small script placed on the hard drive of your computer by the server of a website that you visit. The cookie is placed there for the purpose of recognizing your specific browser / computer combination were you to return to the same site.
All cookies have an owner which tells you who the cookie belongs to. The owner is the domain specified in the cookie.
The word "party" refers to the domain as specified in cookie; the website that is placing the cookie. So, for example, if you visit widgets.com and the domain of the cookie placed on your computer is widgets.com, then this is a first-party cookie. If, however, you visit widgets.com and the cookie placed on your computer says stats-for-free.com, then this is a third-party cookie.

Growth of third party cookie rejection

Reports and research on the subject of website tracking tell us that the rejection of third-party cookies is growing. Increasing numbers of people are either manually blocking third-party cookies, or deleting them regularly.
How many people delete 3rd party cookies? The numbers given can be as high as 40%. If you count that many anti-spyware applications and default privacy settings also block 3rd party cookies, then it is possible that a high percentage of cookies are being blocked.

What actually happens when cookies are blocked / rejected?

1st party cookies: it is very hard to login anywhere
3rd party cookies: no adverse effects to surfing
Q: How does this affect tracking systems, when people block / delete cookies?
A: All visits will still be recorded, but a person who has deleted the cookies will not be recognised as the same (returning) visitor.
When cookies are in place, and not blocked or deleted, total visitor counts will remain comparatively low. If a person constantly deletes cookies, they will be counted as a new "unique" visitor with every subsequent visit.

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