6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Cookies | Limitations & Benefits of Cookies on Website

Generally speaking, cookies are files that are stored on the hard drive and include data about browser sessions (mostly text documents). These details include login and password recall, server configurations, and other frequently used browsing patterns.

The websites will typically use this data to better understand their visitors. Users will communicate with each other on the same page based on their previous browsing activity. 

 

Even with all of its advantages, cookies also have a lot of disadvantages. You can use cookies correctly if you are aware of their benefits and drawbacks.

I'll be focusing on 6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Cookies | Limitations & Benefits of Cookies on Website in this post. You will learn about the pros and cons of using cookies from this page.

Now let's get started,

Advantages of Cookies

1. User Friendly

Cookies are quite easy to utilize. What the client must do with cookies is up to them. There are settings in every browser to delete cookies and history. Users might manually search the hard disk for the text files containing cookies. Users have the option to change or remove them.


2. Availability

Cookies can also be configured to remain active for an extended amount of time. Unless the user specifically deletes them, the cookies will remain accessible once they are saved on their hard disk. Cookies allow for the retrieval of information even in the event of a server failure.


3. Convenience

Cookies are not limited to websites; they can also store data associated with forms. Therefore, the address form will be filled up automatically each time a person visits the website. Cookies, however, are unable to retain private data, including credit card numbers.


4. Marketing

Most businesses use cookies to target products to their clients, especially e-commerce sites. For their marketing effort, data including search terms, keywords, and geographic regions are acquired. 

 

Cookies are used by social networking sites like Facebook to display relevant advertisements.


5. Configurations

Additionally, cookies can be set up to meet specific needs. For instance, it can be configured to only last for a predetermined amount of time or to expire when the user closes the browser tab.


6. Server Requirement

All of the cookie-related data is kept locally on the hard disk, saving server resources. The server does not get any additional weight or load. As a result, they are under reduced pressure, which facilitates the implementation of cookies. 

 

Disadvantages of Cookies

1. Browser Impacts

Cookies are not blocked based on how much time is spent online. Cookies will accumulate every time a person browses the internet. These cookies will occupy space on the hard drive unless the user deletes them. The browser gradually lags or slows down as a result.


2. Security Risks

Cookies present potentially significant security threats because they are saved as text files on the hard disk. These files are simply opened and the contents viewed by any intruder. 

 

Furthermore, not every website that uses cookies to gather data is trustworthy. Some of them have the potential to be malevolent, using cookies to carry out hacking attacks.


3. Size Limitations

There are restrictions on cookie sizes as well. They are unable to hold a lot of data. The majority of cookies can only hold four kilobytes of data. Restrictions on the quantity of cookies are also imposed by browsers. 

 

All other browsers, with the exception of Internet Explorer, only permit up to 20 cookies for a single website.


4. Privacy Concerns

Users are also concerned about privacy in cookies, in addition to security. All online activity are recorded by cookie-enabled websites whenever a user browses the internet. 

 

The majority of people are ignorant that their hard drive contains such data. This means that any third parties, including companies and governmental organizations, can access this data.


5. Manual Disabling

Moreover, browsers have the ability to turn off cookies. Those who are very concerned about security could just turn them off. 

 

In fact, certain browsers will automatically turn off cookies if the security setting is set too high. Consequently, without cookies, web applications cannot function.


6. Encoding Information

Since more code is needed, both encrypting and decrypting cookies is a challenging procedure. The encoding procedure takes time, which will impact the application's performance.