How Do Cookies Provide Personalized Content?

Not all cookies are bad. In fact, cookies help websites function properly and give users a seamless browsing experience. Personalized cookies are helpful text files that remember your preferences to offer a tailored browsing experience. Here's how.

What are personalized cookies?

Personalized cookies are a type of first-party cookie, meaning they are used by the website you're visiting only. First-party cookies are website-specific, meaning they are used by the website you're visiting and not for targeted advertising or tracking (like third-party cookies). From remembering your language preferences to ensuring your online shopping cart items are saved, website cookies tailor your user experience. 

Say, for example, you're shopping on Amazon and looking at several different items. Amazon will track the items you search for and the items you click. It will then use your online behavior to make personalized recommendations. 

Types of personalization cookies

Some common types of personalization cookies include:

• Behavioral cookies track your behavior, like pages viewed, items searched, products selected, and links clicked.
• Recommendation cookies collect and analyze your web activity to offer you personalized recommendations.
• Language and site preferences cookies store your preferences to ensure a smooth experience.
• Location cookies store your location to make sure recommendations are relevant based on geolocation.

An example of first-party personalization cookies (video)

The video below briefly explains how a website provides personal content for the user. It does this by recognizing previous information entered into the database on its secure server, therefore bringing up past interests for the user to click on.

Click on the video below to learn more.

Video transcript

• Anne requests a web page, www.website.com, to find a cheap flight to London.
• www.website.com delivers content to Anne together with cookie ID ABC.
• Anne books a cheap flight to London and types in her name, address, and credit card details.
• Anne's name, address, and flight details are transferred to www.website.com, which stores that information in a file in the database on its secure server (with the reference cookie ABC).
• Personal data is not included in the cookie.
• Four Weeks Later: Anne requests the homepage for www.website.com
• www.website.com server reads cookie ID ABC and finds Anne's file in its database on its secure server by reference to the cookie ID ABC. Based on the personal information in Anne's file in the database, a personalized message is created and delivered:
• "Hello Anne. Please click here for cheap flights to London for the holiday season."
• Anne reads the requested web page.