Does refusing cookies really protect our data?

Let's face it, we’re so accustomed to seeing those little pop-up windows when landing on a website that we barely pay any attention to them anymore. Cookies have become ubiquitous, and whether it’s out of convenience or sheer habit, we tend to accept them without much thought. But those innocuous-seeming cookies actually harbour a wealth of information about us.

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office defines a cookie as "a small file of letters and numbers that is downloaded on to your computer when you visit a website.” It also says that “Cookies are used by many websites and can do a number of things, e.g. remembering your preferences, recording what you have put in your shopping basket, and counting the number of people looking at a website.”

What exactly are they for then? What happens if we opt to refuse cookies? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

To listen to the last episodes, you can click here:

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A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

First Broadcast: 29/2/2024

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices