Necessary Cookies

Cookies that are essential for website functionality and cannot be disabled without breaking the site's basic features. Necessary cookies (also called strictly necessary or essential cookies) enable core functions like security, load balancing, navigation, form submission, session management, and authentication. Examples include cookies maintaining login sessions, remembering items in shopping carts, enabling secure areas, distributing traffic across servers, and detecting abuse. These cookies typically don't require consent under ePrivacy laws because they're necessary to provide the service the user requested. However, organizations must honestly assess whether cookies are truly necessary—just because a cookie is useful or improves experience doesn't make it necessary. Analytics cookies, marketing cookies, and preference cookies generally aren't necessary even if valuable. Only cookies genuinely required for basic functionality qualify. Organizations should document necessity assessments, use minimum necessary cookies, and be prepared to demonstrate why cookies claimed as necessary truly are essential.