Cookies are small pieces of information used by websites for several different purposes. Some websites require you to allow cookies to be stored in order to use them. In this guide you can read about how to allow (enable) cookies in the most popular browsers.
Cookies are small pieces of information that websites use to store information about you on your own computer. Cookies serve several purposes – such as
- Faster loading of a previously visited website on future visits
- Automatic pre-filling of forms, passwords, user information, etc.
- Practical functions on websites (such as remembering the items in a shopping cart)
- Commercial monitoring of your online behavior (especially used for displaying ads)
In addition, some of the more shady websites may place cookies on your computer that can potentially be harmful to the installed programs or even the operating system.
In general, it is recommended that you allow cookies for the following reasons:
- It is convenient when browsing the internet
- It ensures the correct display of all websites
Furthermore, cookies are – as a rule – not as “dangerous” as many people think; especially if you have an antivirus program installed.
Permission in different browsers
Google Chrome
- Click the menu icon in the top right corner of Google Chrome
- Click Settings in the menu
- Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and click the Show advanced settings link
- Click Content settings (a button under the heading ‘Privacy’)
- Make sure the radio button is set to the first item: Allow local data to be stored in the ‘Content settings’ menu. If you only want to accept first-party cookies, the setting should be changed to the fourth item: ‘Block third-party cookies and website data’
Cookies are now allowed in Chrome! See how to delete cookies in Chrome here and read more about adjusting the cookie settings in Chrome on Google’s cookie page.
Mozilla Firefox
- Click the Firefox button in the top left corner of the browser. Then click on the Settings item in the menu
- Select Use customized history settings from the drop-down menu (next to ‘Firefox will:’ under ‘History’):
- Check the box Accept cookies from sites (if not already checked). If you remove the checkmark, cookies will be disabled. Here you can also change the other settings for cookies in Firefox – i.e. what kind of cookies you want to accept and how long the browser should keep them
Cookies are now allowed in Firefox! See how to delete cookies in Firefox here and read more about cookie handling in Firefox on Mozilla’s cookie page