Web cookies (also called HTTP cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small pieces of data that websites store on your device (computer, phone, etc.) through your web browser. They are used to remember information about you and your interactions with the site.
Purpose of Cookies:
Session Management:
Keeping you logged in
Remembering items in a shopping cart
Saving language or theme preferences
Personalization:
Tailoring content or ads based on your previous activity
Tracking & Analytics:
Monitoring browsing behavior for analytics or marketing purposes
Types of Cookies:
Session Cookies:
Temporary; deleted when you close your browser
Used for things like keeping you logged in during a single session
Persistent Cookies:
Stored on your device until they expire or are manually deleted
Used for remembering login credentials, settings, etc.
First-Party Cookies:
Set by the website you're visiting directly
Third-Party Cookies:
Set by other domains (usually advertisers) embedded in the website
Commonly used for tracking across multiple sites
Authentication cookies are a special type of web cookie used to identify and verify a user after they log in to a website or web application.
What They Do:
Once you log in to a site, the server creates an authentication cookie and sends it to your browser. This cookie:
Proves to the website that you're logged in
Prevents you from having to log in again on every page you visit
Can persist across sessions if you select "Remember me"
What's Inside an Authentication Cookie?
Typically, it contains:
A unique session ID (not your actual password)
Optional metadata (e.g., expiration time, security flags)
Analytics cookies are cookies used to collect data about how visitors interact with a website. Their primary purpose is to help website owners understand and improve user experience by analyzing things like:
How users navigate the site
Which pages are most/least visited
How long users stay on each page
What device, browser, or location the user is from
What They Track:
Some examples of data analytics cookies may collect:
Page views and time spent on pages
Click paths (how users move from page to page)
Bounce rate (users who leave without interacting)
User demographics (location, language, device)
Referring websites (how users arrived at the site)
Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
2. Mozilla Firefox
Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
3. Safari
Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.
Go to Preferences > Privacy.
Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.
4. Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
Disabling cookies can make your online experience more difficult. Some websites may not load properly, or you may be logged out frequently. Also, certain features may not work as expected.
Social Media Addiction (Jeffrey Schleicher/UConn School of Business)
UConn Professor Discovers that Heavy Weekend Users May be Substituting Social Media for a Social Life
Are you at risk of becoming addicted to social media?
It seems that the answer lies not in how much you tweet or microblog, but, rather, if you find yourself posting significantly more on weekends than weekdays. Continue Reading
Health insurers can use HIT to help keep premium costs down, but other industries also benefit from healthcare IT advances:
For medical care providers – HIT is good because it creates greater personalization, and it allows for more consistency in the way health is treated. Continue Reading
PR Web – Z-Medica, LLC, a leading developer and marketer of hemostatic devices, announces today that they are supporting the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) program at the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Business.
Recent advances in information technologies (IT) have powered the merger of online and offline retail channels into one single platform. Modern consumers frequently switch between online and offline channels when they navigate through various stages of the decision journey, motivating multichannel sellers to develop omni-channel strategies that optimize their overall profit. This study examines consumers' cross-channel search behavior of "pseudo-showrooming," or the consumer behavior of inspecting one product at a seller's physical store before buying a related but different product at the same seller’s online store, and investigates how such consumer behavior allows a multichannel seller to achieve better coordination between its online and offline arms through optimal product placement strategies. Full article.
CTStartup Podcast– CTStartup was invited to interview the finalists of UConn’s Innovation Quest, a startup incubator program that seeks to help entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life.
Appropriately enough, our first interview is with Ali Oshinskie of Podstores, who hops to turn this casting medium into an effective way for businesses to tell their story to consumers. Tune in for what could be the future of business podcasting.
It has been two weeks since we left to embark on this English summer adventure. With each passing day, my colleagues and I feel more at home in our new environment. We no longer take our time meandering in the tube station trying to navigate our way through London; rather, we stride with confidence to our desired destination with ease. Continue Reading
UConn Today – Sandra Weller has devoted most of her career to learning how the ubiquitous herpes simplex virus replicates and infects people. She focused on this common pathogen because of its widespread impact – it infects two-thirds of the world’s population – and because of its painful symptoms, which can range in severity from bothersome to life-threatening.
But in the past year, she has shifted her focus to another member of the herpes virus family, cytomegalovirus, which has a much greater immediate patient need and stronger commercial potential. With support from a drug discovery consortium comprising UConn, UConn Health, and Yale University, Weller is now thinking like an entrepreneur to more quickly advance her scientific discoveries.
Healthcare IT is increasingly complex because of the policy and regulation uncertainties that dominate industry strategic planning. Savvy CIOs have always understood that innovation arises from ambiguity, however, this is truer today than in the past. Continue Reading
The National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA) presented a plaque to John A. Elliott, dean of the School of Business, Marlys Rizzi, 2016 NAWMBA National Conference Chair and a business school assistant director, and John Knopf, Stamford campus director for the School of Business, on June 14. Missing is Lucy Gilson, head of the management department and the UConn faculty advisor to the local NAWMBA chapter. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
National Association of Women MBAs Thanks UConn for Its ‘Vital’ Contributions to Program’s Success
A plaque was presented in appreciation for the UConn School of Business hosting the 2016 NAWMBA Conference and Career Fair in Stamford last October. The plaque thanks the School and describes its contribution as vital to the success of the educational and networking conference.