TechScape: Google is changing how it tracks us online – but who benefits?

Cookies are one of the many questionable pacts we have made online, where privacy is exchanged for convenience without being entirely sure about the consequences. As with so many arrangements involving our data, this deal is being rewritten under the gaze of regulators.

Last week Google issued an update on how it is replacing cookies on its Chrome browser, which is important because two-thirds of web browsing around the world is on Chrome.

Put simply, a cookie is a text file that is dropped into your browser by a website when you visit it. In the UK and EU, you are asked to consent to multiple cookies when you click on a site (and yes it's worth checking just how many cookies you agree to take on when you give your consent).

The new head of the UK's data watchdog, John Edwards, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme last week - on international data privacy day - that he is no fan of the consent-clicking process. "That's not a very effective way of rebalancing the power relationship between consumers and companies that profit from consumers' data," he said.

Cookie monsters

Cookies identify individual users so the website can record all kinds of things about your activity. Some of this info is helpful, like whether you have logged in to the site before, so you don't have to constantly enter your user name and password every time you visit in the future. This sort of thing is known as a first party cookie.

However, there are types of this technology known as third party cookies that facilitate the storing of information (like your browsing history and your location) by commercial partners - often marketing or advertising businesses - that might make you slightly more uncomfortable. If you check the cookie consent box on any website, you will be surprised at the number of advertising and marketing-related cookies. Third party cookies, through agreements with multiple publishers and websites, are able to create a profile of individual users and serve targeted adverts to you while you browse across multiple websites. Like other news publishers, the Guardian asks readers if it can use cookies, for purposes such as measuring how often readers visit and use our site, and showing readers personalised ads.