Cookies are short text files created by a web server and stored on your computer via a web browser (Internet Export, Firefox, Chrome, etc.). It is used so that later, when you return to the same website, the browser sends the stored cookie back to the server, which thus obtains all the information it has previously stored with you.

Cookies make it possible to distinguish individual website visitors and store specific data about them. In practice, this manifests itself, for example, by having a pre-filled login name in the form – which you may have noticed, for example, if you use a webmail such as seznam.cz, etc. Your browser remembers them from your last visit). Cookies therefore save you time and make it easier to adapt the website to your needs.

The word cookie means round biscuit in English. Data cookies are meant to serve the same purpose as real cookies – based on the Anglo-Saxon custom, to offer visitors a biscuit in order to create a pleasant atmosphere faster. The name and principle of the cookie was invented in 1994 by the programmer Lou Montulli – the creator of the now obsolete Netscape browser.

Cookies also use various statistics of website traffic and other measuring systems, which store in the cookie the visitor’s identifier, the current time from which you came, through which keyword (eg after a Google search). This data is then read and supplemented on other pages, thanks to which they monitor users. From the point of view of the average visitor, this is not much, but it is an important source of information for the site owner, because thanks to them they will find out whether it pays to invest in marketing campaigns or in SEO website optimization.

Cookies save time, you don’t have to log in all the time (so-called authentication cookie) whenever you click on another page on the same website (applies to websites where you see the content only after logging in – eg email box, e-shop account). But they also play an important role, for example, when shopping in online stores (e-shops) – without them you would not put anything in the cart, resp. it wouldn’t last in it if you kept shopping.

By helping to differentiate individual users, cookies help to lose anonymity to some extent. This does not necessarily mean that they will save your name, email, address, birth number, etc. – if you have not intentionally saved them… In addition, modern browsers allow you to disable cookies, but you will lose the above-mentioned benefits.