Understanding Third-Party Cookies

So, you know how when you visit a website, it might stick a little cookie on your computer to remember you? Well, sometimes these cookies come from a different place than the website you’re on. Weird, right?

Imagine you log into a cool site like christophernathaniel.co.uk. They give you a cookie to handle your login stuff. But then, they also load an image from another site, like ad.doubleclick.com. Sneaky, huh?

Now, this image from ad.doubleclick.com can also drop a cookie on your computer. It’s like a little spy keeping tabs on where you’ve been.

Why Should You Care?

Well, picture this: you visit another site, like i.likestotrack.com, and they also have that sneaky image from ad.doubleclick.com. Guess what? That cookie from your visit to christophernathaniel.co.uk? It tags along and tells ad.doubleclick.com that you’ve been to both sites. Creepy, right?

And it gets worse. The more sites you visit with this sneaky image, the more info they gather about you. They can build a whole profile of your online habits and use it to target ads or even sell your data.

What’s Being Done About It?

Thankfully, some browsers are stepping up to the plate:

• Chrome: Finally hopping on the blocking train, making it harder for these sneaky cookies to track you.
• Safari: Has this fancy thing called “Intelligent Tracking Prevention” that blocks third-party cookies by default.
• Firefox: Also jumps on the blocking bandwagon, shutting down known trackers by default.
• Brave: Blocks these sneaky cookies by default. Good guy Brave.
• Edge: You can tweak your settings to block trackers, but it’s not as strict as the others.

How to Protect Yourself

So, what can you do to stop these sneaky cookies in their tracks? Well, for starters, you can tweak your browser settings to block third-party cookies. You can also use privacy-focused browser extensions to beef up your defenses.