Cookies are small text files that are stored on the user’s device while browsing and perform various functions such as remembering login data to services, collecting statistical information on the pages visited, identifying the browser and device used, selecting contents and targeted communications according to your preferences and more.
Cookies can be of various types, depending on the type of data they store and how long they remain stored on the user’s device.
Session or temporary cookies are those that expire or are deleted when the browser is closed, while persistent cookies have longer expirations (from a few minutes to whole months) depending on the functions they perform. It is these functions that distinguish cookies in two categories: technical and non-technical (or profiling).
Technical cookies manage the data necessary for the delivery of the pages and facilitate navigation, allowing, for example, not to have to re-enter the user and password to access particular services, to remember the last page visited or how far it has been seen a video, to recognize the type of device in use and to adapt the size of the images accordingly. Technical cookies also allow you to perform aggregate statistical analyzes on the most visited pages and user preferences, but only anonymously, and are not used to analyze the behavior or preferences of individual users.
Profiling cookies, on the other hand, are used to analyze the interests and browsing habits of individual users, to personalize their browsing and to provide, for example, content, including advertising, aimed at particular interests.
Cookies can be provided directly by the operator of the site on which you are browsing (so-called publisher) or, if the site relies on external services for particular functions, by third parties (so-called third parties).