A new study from the Electronic Frontier Foundation has highlighted just how different the cookie lifetimes can be in digital apps and home assistants. These cookies are essential for optimizing user experience and analyzing online activity. Their different lifespans can have a tremendous impact on the way websites work. The study found seven different cookie durations from 30 days to a massive 3650 days.
Cookies with a short duration, like 30 days, are frequently used for ephemeral, short-term sessions. Cookies are used by nearly all websites to remember your preferences. That short lifespan means they expire quickly, so you frequently have to log back in or reconfigure your settings. This architecture only works for applications with limited long-term data storage needs.
Longer-duration cookies are often used for more strategic, beneficial purposes. Cookies for 90 days give a short opportunity to keep users’ personal info coming. That way, websites can still optimize their user experiences without getting caught up in the privacy debate. Cookies with an expiration time of 274 days would strike a wonderful balance between positive user experience and data privacy concerns. They offer increased reach and access but are still relatively manageable.
Exceptional lengths are 366-day and 397-day durations. These alternatives are tailored to users who are in a more productive mindset and willing to devote more time focused on a website. These cookies track user behavior, choices, and even shopping cart items, allowing for a consistent experience across repeated visits.
In the universe of shelf-stable cookies 1825 day shelf-stable cookies are common, that’s five years. Some go as far as 3650 days, which provides you with an impressive decade’s worth of user data stored! These are invaluable for industries that depend on long-term loyalty, like subscription-based businesses or community-focused online ecosystems. Each of these durations leads to important discussions on privacy and data collection practices. They keep the door open for companies to continue hoarding tons of personal user data.
Beyond these long-lived cookies, there are those with intermediate but still extreme durations such as 390 days and 396 days. These timeframes provide an industry-friendly balance between user re-engagement and keeping data fresh and clutter-free. These differences in cookie length show the different interests of online platforms and the consumers who use them.
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