What are cookies ?
Cookies are small text files that are sent from the web site visited by the user to the user’s device (usually to the browser), where they are stored so that they can recognize such device the time of the next visit. At ever subsequent visit, in fact, cookies are re-sent from the user’s device to the site.
Each cookie generally contains: the name of the server from which the cookie was sent; the expiration and a number, usually a unique number randomly generated by the computer. The server of the web site that transfers the cookie uses this number to recognize you when you return to a site or browse from one page to another.
Cookies can be installed not only by the site manager of the site visited by the user (first party cookie), but also by a different site that installs cookies through the first site (third party cookies) and is able to recognize them. This occurs because there may be elements (images, maps, sounds, links to web pages of other domains, etc.) on the visited site that reside on servers other than the server of the visited site. Depending on their purpose, cookies can be distinguished as technical cookies and profiling cookies.
Technical cookies are those used for the sole purpose of transmitting a communication on an electronic communications network, or, to the extent strictly necessary, to the service provider of the information company explicitly requested by the subscriber or by the user to provide such service. In particular, such cookies are usually used to allow efficient browsing among pages, store users’ preferences (language, country, etc.), make electronic authentications, manage the shopping cart or allow online purchases, etc. Some of these cookies (called essential or strictly necessary) enable features without which it would not be possible to perform some transactions. The use of technical cookies does not require the users’ consent.
Analytics cookies are assimilated to technical cookies if used directly by the site manager to collect aggregate data on the number of users and how they visit such site. These cookies allow data controllers and/or web site managers to understand how users interact with the site content for optimization purposes
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Profiling cookies are used to trace the user’s browsing, analyze his behavior for marketing purposes and to create profiles of his tastes, habits, choices, etc. in order to send targeted advertising messages related to the user’s interests and in line with the preferences shown from his online browsing. Such cookies may be installed on the user’s terminal only if he has expressed his consent in the simplified manner indicated in the Measure.
Depending on their duration, cookies are distinguished as persistent, which remain stored until their expiration on the user’s device, unless the user removes them, or as sessions, which are not stored for a lengthy period on the user’s device and which vanish when the browser is closed.
