Function and purpose of cookies
Cookies or any other form of local storage have a function and a purpose. A function is a particular task a cookie has. So a function can be “store the IP address”. Purpose can be seen as the Why behind the function. So maybe the IP address is stored because it is needed for Statistics, or it is stored because it is used for marketing/tracking purposes, or it is needed for functional purposes.
There are five purpose categories: Marketing/tracking, statistics-anonymous, statistics/analytics, functional, and preferences. These are explained below.
Marketing/Tracking Cookies
Cookies or any other form of local storage required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Examples of marketing/tracking cookies:
- Google Adwords cookie
- DoubleClick
- AddThis WordPress plugin
- Remarketing pixels
- Social Media cookies
The use of Marketing/tracking cookies should always be mentioned in your cookie policy or privacy statement.
Statistics-Anonymous Cookies
Cookies or any other form of local storage that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes (Anonymous Analytics Cookies), that are placed on a first-party domain, and that do not allow identification of particular individuals.
Statistics/analytics Cookies
Cookies or any other form of local storage that is used exclusively for statistical purposes (Analytics Cookies). These are also known as “performance cookies”.
Functional Cookies
The cookie or any other form of local storage is used for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network;
OR
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user. If cookies are disabled, the requested functionality will not be available. This makes them essential functional cookies. Sometimes these cookies are also called “strictly necessary”.
Preferences Cookies
Cookies or any other form of local storage that can not be seen as statistics-anonymous, statistics, marketing or functional, and where the technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences.
