I am using cookies on my website without putting at risk your online privacy. The cookies used are not nearly as delicious as those presented above, yet they are useful to me, to improve my website. Let’s discover why!
Google Analytics
My website is using Google Analytics, which is Google’s analytics tool that helps websites to understand how their visitors engage with their web properties. It may use a set of cookies to collect information and report website usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors. The main cookie used by Google Analytics is the “_ga” cookie. Learn more about how Google uses data when you use this website and about Analytics cookies and privacy information.
Hotjar
My website also uses Hotjar. It powers the little widget you would see on the right after consenting to the use of cookies. It allows me to gather feedback from visitors, and generate heatmaps, click maps. Overall, it helps me improve my site’s content over time, complementing Google Analytics with essentially qualitative insights on visitors’ engagement. To function properly, Hotjar stores first-party cookies on your internet browser. Hotjar’s cookies allow displaying the correct content without personally identifying anyone. The cookie is set when you consent to the usage of cookies only. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
More on cookie management
It is important to know that if you disable cookies you may not be able to use certain features offered by some web sites. You can disable cookies through your browser. Most browsers have instructions on how to disable cookies in their “Help” sections. The instructions for all browsers vary. But the steps are generally similar for most.
Here are some places you can look to disable or enable cookies:
- Chrome: At the top right, click “More Settings”. At the bottom, click “Advanced”. Under “Privacy and security”, click Site “Settings”, then “Cookies”. From here, you can: Turn on cookies: Next to “Blocked,” turn on the switch. Turn off cookies: Turn off Allow sites to save and read cookie data.
- Internet Explorer: Look in the “Tools” menu, select “Internet Options”, and then click the “Security” tab. Click “Internet”, and then click “Custom Level”. Scroll down to “Cookies”, click “Disable” (or “Enable”) for both cookie options, and then click “OK”.
- Mozilla Firefox: Open “Tasks”, choose “Privacy & Security”, and then “Cookie Manager”. Choose “View Stored Cookies” from the submenu to open the “Cookie Manager” window. Select one or more cookies and click either “Remove Cookie” or “Remove All Cookies”.
- Netscape: Select “Edit | Preferences” from the main menu. Select “Advanced” and under “Cookies”, select “Disable cookies” and click “OK”.
- Safari: Choose “Preferences” from the Safari menu and click “Security”. Select “Never”, “Always”, or “Only from sites you navigate to”, to set your preferences at the level you desire. To see the cookies stored on your computer, click “Show Cookies”. From here you have the option to remove one or two cookies or all cookies.