What does Accept cookies actually mean?

You open a shop’s website. A banner pops up. Accept all, reject all, or manage. Before you tap, what is a cookie? It’s a small note a website asks your browser to keep. Next visit, your browser hands the note back.

Some notes do a job you asked for. Add a lamp to your basket, and the shop remembers it as you browse. It’s the same when you stay logged in. Essential notes like this usually don’t need your permission.

Other notes are about you, not your basket. Analytics cookies help a site count visits, and see which pages you read. Advertising cookies can come from another company, whose code sits on many websites. It can recognize your browser from site to site. That’s why the lamp follows you onto a news website.

So, “Accept all” usually means yes to these extras. “Reject all” usually keeps the essentials. Your basket still works. Options differ on every site, so “Manage” shows what’s really on the list. A cookie can remember your basket. Or it can remember you.