A cookie by itself is pretty small, only a few KB at most, but the longer you browse, the more cookies you accumulate - and those few KB add up in a hurry.
The most immediate reason is that clearing cookies improves your computer’s memory and browser performance. And those are the bad boys we really want to get rid of whenever we clean our browser. Tracking cookies cling to your browser, following everything you do online, recording your actions, and slowing down your browsing. Session cookies only last as long as you’re on a specific website, and they follow what you do (we’re even using session cookies now to see which articles you’re reading).Īuthentication cookies remember who you are and what your credentials are, and will either deny or grant you access to parts of a site. There are lots of different kinds of cookies: No matter what you do online, you’ll be running into cookies. They can be used for anything from saving your username and password for easy logging in (which you should never do, by the way - it’s really dangerous) to making shopping online possible by remembering the items you put in your cart.
Websites use cookies to keep track of who you are and what you do on their site. Cookies are an essential part of the browsing experience, for better or for worse.
