Cookie

A small text file stored on a user's device by a website or app to remember information about the user and their interactions. Cookies serve many purposes: maintaining login sessions, remembering preferences, enabling shopping carts, personalizing content, tracking analytics, and serving targeted advertising. From a privacy perspective, cookies can collect substantial personal data and track users across websites. Privacy laws regulate cookies based on their purpose and necessity. Strictly necessary cookies (essential for site functionality) typically don't require consent, but analytics, marketing, and tracking cookies usually do under laws like GDPR and ePrivacy Directive. Cookies can be first-party (set by the website you're visiting) or third-party (set by other domains), session-based (deleted when you close your browser) or persistent (remaining for specified periods). Websites must disclose cookie use in privacy policies and often through cookie banners.