Tracking, Cookies, and Fingerprinting
Learn how websites track users via cookies, localStorage, and browser fingerprinting.
How Websites Track Users
Websites use multiple mechanisms to track users across sessions and sites: cookies, local storage, tracking pixels, and browser fingerprinting. This data is used for advertising, analytics, and sometimes malicious profiling.
First-Party Cookies
First-party cookies are set by the website you are visiting. They store session state, preferences, and authentication tokens. These are generally necessary for websites to function and are considered acceptable.
All lessons in this course
- Browser Security Settings and Extensions
- Tracking, Cookies, and Fingerprinting
- VPNs: What They Protect and What They Don't
- Operational Security (OPSEC) Basics