Postdoctoral Research Associate

Session Management

• Keeping you logged in
• Remembering items in a shopping cart
• Saving language or theme preferences

Personalization

• Tailoring content or ads based on your previous activity

Tracking & Analytics

• Monitoring browsing behavior for analytics or marketing purposes

Session Cookies

• Temporary; deleted when you close your browser
• Used for things like keeping you logged in during a single session

Persistent Cookies

• Stored on your device until they expire or are manually deleted
• Used for remembering login credentials, settings, etc.

First-Party Cookies

• Set by the website you're visiting directly

Third-Party Cookies

• Set by other domains (usually advertisers) embedded in the website
• Commonly used for tracking across multiple sites

Authentication Cookies

• Proves to the website that you're logged in
• Prevents you from having to log in again on every page you visit
• Can persist across sessions if you select "Remember me"

Typically, they contain:

• A unique session ID (not your actual password)
• Optional metadata (e.g., expiration time, security flags)

Analytics Cookies

• Used to collect data about how visitors interact with a website
• Their primary purpose is to help website owners understand and improve user experience
• Things like:
• How users navigate the site
• Which pages are most/least visited
• How long users stay on each page
• What device, browser, or location the user is from

Some examples of data analytics cookies may collect:

• Page views and time spent on pages
• Click paths (how users move from page to page)
• Bounce rate (users who leave without interacting)
• User demographics (location, language, device)
• Referring websites (how users arrived at the site)

Disabling Cookies

• Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
• Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
• Choose your preferred option:
• Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
• Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).

Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.

Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.

Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.

Go to Preferences > Privacy.

Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.

Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.

Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.

Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.

For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.

For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.