Whenever you surf the web and login to a website, or simply switch to dark mode on that site, your preferences are saved. When you visit that website again, you are already logged in and dark mode is saved.

How does the website know that you logged in earlier? Or that you had switched to dark mode? This magic is accomplished by cookies.

So what’s so special about cookies? Why do websites keep asking you to accept cookies?

In this article, we will see why cookies are important and how are they different from other data storage and retrieval methods.

Then we will try to understand how they work by looking at an example of the Facebook login process.

Next we will see some of the fundamental vulnerabilities associated with cookies and how hackers exploit them. And finally we will learn about tracking cookies and why are they unnecessary.

By the end of the article, you will know why cookies are an important part of web development.

#web-development #developer