Digital Lexicon Hub

Small name–value records that a web server asks a user agent to store and return with eligible HTTP requests to maintain state.

Cookies enable essential session and personalization functions and can support measurement, but their use affects privacy, consent, security, vendor governance, and analytics reliability.

An application stores a random session identifier in a Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite cookie, keeps sensitive account data server-side, rotates the identifier after login, and applies consent controls to non-essential analytics cookies.

Cookies can be stolen, leaked, blocked, deleted, or used for intrusive tracking. They have size and scope limits, cross-site use is restricted by default in browsers such as Safari and Firefox, and consent does not replace data minimization or secure design.

Servers set cookies through Set-Cookie; browsers return matching values in Cookie according to domain, path, expiry, Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite, and other rules. Cookies may support sessions, preferences, security, analytics, or advertising and may be first-party or third-party by context.