A “cookie” is a text file saved on the user’s computer when he/she accesses a website with the purpose of providing information each time the user returns to the same site. It is a sort of reminder of the visited web page. With the cookie, the web server sends information to the user’s browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.) stored on the computer of the latter, and will be reread and updated each time the user returns to the site. In this way the website can automatically adapt to the user. During navigation the user could also receive on his/her terminal cookies from different sites (“third party” cookies), set directly by the managers of said websites and used for the purposes and according to the methods defined by them.
Depending on their duration, they are divided into session cookies (i.e. temporary cookies that are automatically deleted from the terminal at the end of the browsing session, by closing the browser) and persistent cookies (i.e. cookies that remain stored on the terminal until they expire or are deleted by the user).
Based on their function and purpose of use, cookies can be divided into technical cookies and profiling cookies.