Cookies are not, unfortunately, the treats made of dough. They are, in fact, small text files, stored in binary, usually one-line long, which store relevant information about websites visited by a computer. This might include a selected language, or ad preferences. Some websites even use cookies to store passwords that are set to ‘remember’. Thus, cookies need strong security and the ID of each one must be unfathomably difficult to find without permission, to reduce the risk of hacking. Cookies are stored on the computer, as opposed to the website. Because both HTTP and HTTPS don't transmit user data, none of the websites you visit know who you are. Therefore, whenever you visit a webpage, it reads the cookies it stored on your computer last time you visited it, in order to find out information like your email address. Many people are against cookies, due to privacy concerns; under new GDPR regulations, all end users in Europe must now be notified of cookie use on each website they visit (if the website uses cookies). Many sites also give an option to refuse cookies.