Liudmyla Kharchenko
AuthorTracking cookies are small data files that collect information about a user's behavior on a website. Cross-site cookies track users across multiple websites to build detailed browsing profiles. Whether you're optimizing ad performance or ensuring compliance, this guide covers everything you need to know, plus a free tool to check your site's cookies.
Cookies are little text files that a website places on a user's browser when they visit the site. Many cookies track user data, and that’s why they are called tracking cookies.
Tracking cookies are commonly used for behavioral advertising, analytics, and user profiling. These cookies often involve third parties, unlike essential cookies that support website functions.
What can cookies track? Cookies record your activities across different sites. They collect user data like clicks, location, shopping preferences, search history, device specifications, and more. The data businesses get from cookie tracking is used for behavioral advertising, analytics, and user profiling. This data shows user browsing habits and preferences, which allows businesses to tweak and tune their advertising and marketing for maximum return on investment.
A cross-site cookie is just another term for a third-party cookie. These are cookies sent by a website that is different from the one you are currently visiting. Third-party cookies are used to track users across numerous websites. Usually, such cookies are used by advertisers and analysts.
The primary goal of third-party cookies is to collect data on users’ online activities.
Let's get through the steps of the third-party cookies operation.
| Step 1: initial request | The browser loads third-party content and contacts the third-party server. |
| Step 2: cookie creation | The server responds with a cookie containing a unique ID and tracking data. |
| Step 3: cross-site tracking | When visiting other sites, the cookie lets the server recognize and track the user. |
| Step 4: ad serving | Using this data, targeted ads are shown based on the user's browsing behavior. |
Here's a more visually friendly explanation:
Tracking cookies can collect a lot of data about the user, including, but not limited to:
| Search queries | Terms entered in search engines or site search bars. |
| User activity | Pages visited, scrolling behavior, and time spent on each page. |
| Browsing habits | Patterns across multiple visits or websites. |
| Purchase history | Products bought, added to cart, or abandoned. |
| User preferences | Saved logins, language settings, and display options. |
| IP address | Approximate location based on the user's network. |
| Device and browser info | Device type, operating system, browser, and screen resolution. |
| Geolocation data | Physical location based on IP or GPS (if permitted). |
| Ad engagement | When and where the user viewed ads. |
| Ad frequency | Number of times a specific ad has been shown to a user. |
| Link interaction | Which links and buttons did the user click on? |
| Referral sources | Tracks how the user landed on the site (from ad, email, social media, or search). |
As you can see, cross-site tracking cookies give detailed insights into user behavior, preferences, and interactions across websites. This valuable data helps businesses greatly. How? Let's get to the next point.
Websites use cookies for advertising, analytics, personalization, and A/B testing. Let's get a closer look at each of the use cases.
| Use case | Purpose | Example | Benefits for business |
| Advertising | Deliver targeted ads based on users' browsing patterns. | Showing an ad for sneakers after a user browses a sneaker store. | Allows for improved ad relevance, better conversion rates, and increased ROI. |
| Analytics | Understand how the user interacts with the website or app. | Tracking which pages are most visited, what time is spent on site, navigation paths, and bounce rates. | Allows for optimizing website structure, content strategy, and performance. |
| Personalization | Tailor content and experience to individual users. | Record language settings, auto-fill login forms, and recommend related products. | Allows for facilitating user experience and encourages repeat visits and purchases. |
| A/B testing | Compare content variations or design options to see what performs better. | Show two versions of a landing page to different users and track results. | Allows for making data-driven decisions for design, content, and UX improvements. |
All of these applications make tracking cookies essential tools. So businesses try to get the most of them while balancing with privacy compliance.
There are several ways to find out if your website uses tracking cookies.
1. Use your web browser’s Developer Tools:
In Chrome:
2. Use online cookie scanners:
3. Check your website’s code or Tag Manager
If you use Google Tag Manager or embed third-party scripts (like Facebook Pixel, Hotjar, or Google Ads), those likely drop cookies.
Review your tags and tracking scripts, especially those from advertisers or analytics platforms.
Website Tracking Checker from Stape helps you see the tracking health of your website. It also provides you with insights on how you can improve tracking quality for web and server-side tracking.
The Stape Checker focuses on the four significant tracking aspects:
| Analytics | Verify whether you're implementing the recommended standards for tracking with analytics tools such as GA4. |
| Advertising | Explore how server-side tracking can improve the accuracy of paid ads attribution and boost return on ad spend (ROAS). |
| Cookies | Ensure the cookie duration is set appropriately and that consent preferences are properly enforced using our cookie scanner. Scan website cookies with Stape Checker to identify potential issues, optimize compliance, and improve user experience. |
| SEO | Identify which tracking scripts are active on your site and assess their impact on page load times. By implementing server-side tracking, you can eliminate some of these scripts. Discover how with our free SEO checker. |
Try Stape Website Tracking Checker to analyze your website's tracking health and get insights on how to improve both client-side and server-side tracking. All for free!
Tracking cookies are not dangerous or malicious by nature. However, they raise privacy concerns and pose security risks under certain circumstances.
Tracking cookies do not contain any malware; they cannot infect your device or run code on it. They are simply small text files.
Such cookies improve user experience by providing a personalized user experience, saving user settings, and enabling relevant ads. In other words, they have a positive impact and intent.
Potential risks and concerns include privacy invasion since tracking cookies can build detailed profiles of users without their full knowledge. What's more, some companies share or sell tracking cookies' data to advertisers and data brokers. Another concern is targeted manipulation when behavioral data can be used for hyper-targeted advertising or targeted misinformation.
This is why we now have strict data privacy regulations like the GDPR, CCPA, and ePrivacy Directive that specifically address:
These regulations require websites to clearly inform users about what data is being collected and to obtain explicit consent before setting most tracking cookies. Failing to comply can result in legal penalties and loss of user trust.
Third-party cookies fall under the GDPR, CCPA, and other data protection regulations, both regional and global. Before you set tracking cookies on your website, you need to fully understand how to comply with the cookie laws that affect you. Even if there are no restrictions in your region, there could be some in the areas from which your customers visit your website.
Here are some basic steps to go through to make sure your cookie tracking is compliant:
1. Set a cookie consent banner. Before you start using cookies or collecting your users' data, you need to obtain their consent. We recommend you follow our all-in-one cookie banner guide. You can find all the requirements for a cookie banner, implementation steps, and tips in the guide, so we won’t dwell on it here.
2. Provide users with detailed cookie information. In your cookie policy or consent banner, list all the cookies you use, along with their purpose. State the duration of cookies and whether any third parties are involved. Such transparency is required under regulations like GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive.
3. Group your cookies into categories. Define which cookies are essential, functional, and performance, and which ones are marketing. This will help your users understand what each cookie does and allow them to consent to specific categories while being fully informed.
4. Log and manage consent. Keep a secure and time-stamped record of user consent. This will help you prove your compliance per user request or in the event of an audit.
5. Update your cookie policy. As your website or tracking needs change, update your cookie policy and consent accordingly if any new third-party tools are added, or privacy regulations change.
Staying transparent and regularly updating your policy helps meet global data protection standards.
To obtain consent for tracking cookies, websites must implement a clear and straightforward process of informing users and allowing them to opt in or out of tracking cookies. This is called cookie consent. Cookie consent is the interaction between a visitor and a consent management platform that takes place on your website. In recent years, several privacy regulations have been introduced, like GDPR, CPRA, LGPD, and others. Obtaining user consent for tracking is not a preference; it is a legal requirement under numerous privacy regulations.
To keep your website's SEO ranking high and avoid potential fines, it is essential to include a consent banner that meets all the legal requirements. A cookie banner is a pop-up that emerges when a user visits your website. This pop-up informs them about storing cookies on the user's device. This banner has two primary purposes: to let website visitors know you are using cookies for tracking purposes, and to get visitor consent on their data collection.
To get consent for tracking cookies, you need to integrate a Consent Management Platform (CMP) that communicates user consent choices to your server-side tagging setup. Some popular cookie banner tools are ConsentMode, Cookiebot, and OneTrust. Follow the instructions provided by the CMP to embed the cookie banner on your site.
There are several alternatives to third-party tracking cookies. Here's a short overview:
1. First-party data. This is the first alternative. Collected directly from your website, it is a reliable and valuable source of user data.
2. Server-side tracking. When you move tracking to the server, you get more control over the data you collect, bypassing browser restrictions and ad blockers.
3. Contextual advertising. This is another alternative to cross-site cookies. With contextual advertising, ads are shown based on the content the user is viewing rather than their data.
4. Zero-party data. Information users share with the business intentionally (like survey responses, loyalty program data) can be used for precise targeting.
5. Google Privacy Sandbox (Topics API). This is interest-based targeting based on topics rather than tracking users across sites.
Cookieless advertising gives marketers a way to prioritize user privacy while still delivering relevant content to them. When marketers turn to zero- and first-party data, contextual ads, and server-side tracking, they can put privacy first.
Cross-site tracking cookies are not inherently evil or illegal. However, their use is regulated by data privacy laws like GDPR in the EU, CCPA in California, and a wide range of other laws.
For instance, in the EU, websites must ask for explicit consent before placing tracking cookies. Under the GDPR, a business must inform the user what data they collect, why they collect it, and who they share it with.
If a business uses tracking cookies without meeting the requirements of the relevant legislation, it can be considered non-compliant. This could be potentially illegal and lead to fines, reputation damage, enforcement actions, or even legal proceedings, depending on the severity of the violation.
To view tracking cookies on Chrome, do the following:
Similar steps apply in other browsers:
Firefox:
Go to Privacy & Security settings, then Cookies and Site Data, and click View Cookies.
Edge:
Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Permissions → Manage and delete cookies and site data.
Safari:
Go to Preferences → Privacy, and you can choose to block all cookies or selectively block cookies from specific websites.
There are several ways to remove tracking cookies from your browser.
1. Clear cookies via browser settings.
This removes all cookies.
For Chrome:
Go to Settings → Privacy and security → Clear browsing data
Select Cookies and other site data
Choose a time range (e.g., All time)
Click Clear data
For Firefox:
Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data.
Click Clear Data…
Check Cookies and Site Data
Click Clear
2. Enable automatic cookie deletion
You can install a Chrome/Firefox extension like Cookie AutoDelete or Privacy Badger to remove tracking cookies regularly.
3. Block third-party cookies
Blocking prevents many tracking cookies from being set in the first place.
Chrome:
Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data
Choose Block third-party cookies.
Firefox:
Settings → Privacy & Security
Set Enhanced Tracking Protection to Strict
4. Use private/incognito mode
These modes do not save cookies after you close the session, unless you explicitly allow them. With these modes, you can browse without being tracked.
There are several ways to detect tracking cookies.
1. Use built-in browser tools
Google Chrome / Microsoft Edge / Brave:
Right-click on a webpage → Inspect (or press F12)
Go to the Application tab
Open Cookies under the Storage section
Look at:
Domains: Third-party domains (like doubleclick.net, facebook.com) are often trackers
Names: Cookies like _ga, _fbp, uid, id suggest tracking
Expiration: Long-living cookies (months/years) may be for tracking
2. Use privacy extensions
Extensions that block or report tracking cookies can also identify them. Popular tools: Privacy Badger (by the EFF), uBlock Origin, Ghostery.
These tools often show who is tracking you, what kind of data is being collected, and which cookies are responsible.
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