Cookies on websites are small text sequences of information that are stored directly in the browser. A cookie has a specific name and a specific value, both of which are strings of characters.
They are mainly used to store useful things such as your login or which items you have in your shopping cart.
In these two cases, they remember the status on a website and belong to the group of functional cookies.
Why is this necessary at all?
The nature of the Internet is such that a certain state cannot be memorized.
Imagine your online banking without cookies. You would have to log in again every time you accessed a new page.
Cookies are therefore useful on the one hand, but they can also be misused.
What do cookies have to do with data protection?
Data collectors can set cookies and use their names and values to read pairs that are stored on your browser to determine your exact surfing behavior. When you access a website, these cookies are then read again. Many large advertising companies use website cookies to deliver personalized advertising.
This misuse of cookies is a violation of your privacy and browsers usually allow you to block, limit or delete these cookies.