By Sushant Agarwal
Published on | May 19, 2025
You’ve seen the pop-ups—“Accept All” or “Reject All” cookies. But what do they really mean for your privacy and browsing experience?
Cookies are small files websites save on your device. They help remember preferences, logins, and track your browsing.
Session cookies are temporary and disappear when you close your browser. Persistent cookies stick around longer and remember details like logins.
Essential cookies help websites function—like keeping shopping carts working. These can’t be turned off.
You can opt out of functional (preferences), analytics (usage stats), and advertising cookies (track you across websites).
Ads often use third-party cookies that follow you across sites and devices, especially if you use services like Google while logged in.
Accepting all cookies enables full site features and personalised ads. Rejecting keeps things basic but private.
Cookie choices are stored. You can revisit “cookie settings” later to update your preferences or withdraw consent.
The EU’s GDPR law made cookie consent mandatory. Many global sites comply to avoid breaking data protection rules.
Tools like Global Privacy Control let browsers express privacy settings automatically—but adoption is still limited.
Worried you’ve accepted too much? Delete cookies from your browser to reset—but remember, this logs you out everywhere.
Cookies don’t slow devices, but too many can clutter your browser and slightly affect speed. Clear them often to keep things smooth.
Cookies save logins and preferences; cache stores site data like images to speed up loading. Both improve browsing in different ways.