Why is it important to understand the use of session ID cookies?

Simply, cookies can be described as small types of text files that websites which employs those cookies can place on the hard disk of a visitor’s computer device. This helps the websites to track the user over a period of time. When an individual visits a website or e-commerce platform he/she might see that the username appears on the e-store. This is possible because of cookies. The data stored by cookies is generally short and includes data like date of access, data about the last visit and ID number.

Exchange of data from cookies

The website developer has to keep several things in mind for developing the website. One vital aspect is the way in which the customers are remembered on the site. In this regard, the cookies become helpful for tracking the visits of users. Their actions, as well as preferences, are also acquired through the data obtained from cookies. Shopping cart and browsed products often form the cookie data for users browsing on a shopping site.

 A brief Delineation of session IDs

With regard to functionality, the session ids are completely identical with cookies, but there is a fundamental difference between the two. In a general manner, the information stored by session id is not made a part of the hard drive. The website with which a person interacts can record and remember the actions but retrieving session id from the computer of the user is not possible as the session ids do not persist. The data stored in session ids expire with the shutting down of the browser. Therefore these session ids can be defined as cookies which are temporary. Information in this regard can be gained by visiting https://siteimprove.com/en/gdpr/gdpr-cookie-consent-policy/.

Passing of session id on to the browser

In a technical sense, the session ids are cookies that do not expire. But creating session ids with date of expiry is possible. Hence in a virtual manner, the session ids become identical to cookies in this way. In some cases, session ids have a vital caveat but are often used in the string of the URL. This can create difficult problems for the search engines because requests then produce copy content present on a single URL. In order to fix this problem 301 conditional redirecting is used to display the bots on a non-sessioned page version. This is also known as cloaking which is search engine friendly and is done by removing the session ids.

The control of cookies and session ids

For individual users who want to turn off cookies along with session ids, they cansimply use their browser settings for that purpose. However, taking this step makes the process of browsing on the web slightly difficult. There are some sites that might urge users to enable cookies so that the user can interact with the content of their website easily.

However, these cookies can be deleted on a routine basis and clearing the cookies from the browser once in a month is a good idea.