What is a cookie? A cookie is a small text file that is stored by the computer the moment a website is visited by a user. The text stores information that the site is able to read when it is consulted at a later time. Some of these cookies are necessary for the site to function properly, while others are useful to the visitor because they can securely store, for example, user name or language settings. The advantage of having cookies installed on your pc is that you no longer need to fill in the same information each time you want to access a previously visited site.

What types of cookies exist

Technical cookies

Technical cookies are those used for the sole purpose of “carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network, or to the extent strictly necessary for the provider of an information society service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user to provide such a service” (see Article 122(1) of the Code). They are not used for any further purposes and are normally installed directly by the owner or operator of the website. They can be divided into navigation or session cookies, which ensure normal navigation and use of the website (allowing, for example, to make a purchase or authenticate to access restricted areas); analytics cookies, assimilated to technical cookies where used directly by the operator of the site to collect information, in aggregate form, on the number of users and how they visit the site itself; functionality cookies, which allow the user to navigate according to a set of selected criteria (for example, language, products selected for purchase) in order to improve the service rendered to the same. The installation of such cookies does not require the prior consent of users, while the obligation to give information pursuant to Art. 13 of the Code, which the operator of the site, if it uses only such devices, may provide in the manner it deems most appropriate.

Profiling cookies

Profiling cookies are aimed at creating profiles related to the user and are used in order to send advertising messages in line with the preferences expressed by the user when browsing the web. Due to the particular invasiveness that such devices can have within the private sphere of users, European and Italian regulations require that the user must be adequately informed about their use and thus express valid consent. They are referred to in Art. 122 of the Code where it provides that “the storage of information in the terminal equipment of a contractor or user or access to information already stored is permitted only on the condition that the contractor or user has given his or her consent after being informed in the simplified manner referred to in Article 13, paragraph 3” (Article 122, paragraph 1, of the Code).

Publishers and third parties

An additional element to be considered for the proper definition of the subject under consideration is the subjective one. That is, it is necessary to take into account the different entity that installs cookies on the user’s terminal, depending on whether it is the same operator of the site that the user is visiting (which can be succinctly referred to as the “publisher”) or a different site that installs cookies through the former (so-called “third party”).