Web cookies (also called HTTP cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small pieces of data that websites store on your device (computer, phone, etc.) through your web browser. They are used to remember information about you and your interactions with the site.
Purpose of Cookies:
Session Management:
Keeping you logged in
Remembering items in a shopping cart
Saving language or theme preferences
Personalization:
Tailoring content or ads based on your previous activity
Tracking & Analytics:
Monitoring browsing behavior for analytics or marketing purposes
Types of Cookies:
Session Cookies:
Temporary; deleted when you close your browser
Used for things like keeping you logged in during a single session
Persistent Cookies:
Stored on your device until they expire or are manually deleted
Used for remembering login credentials, settings, etc.
First-Party Cookies:
Set by the website you're visiting directly
Third-Party Cookies:
Set by other domains (usually advertisers) embedded in the website
Commonly used for tracking across multiple sites
Authentication cookies are a special type of web cookie used to identify and verify a user after they log in to a website or web application.
What They Do:
Once you log in to a site, the server creates an authentication cookie and sends it to your browser. This cookie:
Proves to the website that you're logged in
Prevents you from having to log in again on every page you visit
Can persist across sessions if you select "Remember me"
What's Inside an Authentication Cookie?
Typically, it contains:
A unique session ID (not your actual password)
Optional metadata (e.g., expiration time, security flags)
Analytics cookies are cookies used to collect data about how visitors interact with a website. Their primary purpose is to help website owners understand and improve user experience by analyzing things like:
How users navigate the site
Which pages are most/least visited
How long users stay on each page
What device, browser, or location the user is from
What They Track:
Some examples of data analytics cookies may collect:
Page views and time spent on pages
Click paths (how users move from page to page)
Bounce rate (users who leave without interacting)
User demographics (location, language, device)
Referring websites (how users arrived at the site)
Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
2. Mozilla Firefox
Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
3. Safari
Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.
Go to Preferences > Privacy.
Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.
4. Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
Disabling cookies can make your online experience more difficult. Some websites may not load properly, or you may be logged out frequently. Also, certain features may not work as expected.
Research by Associate Professor Beth Russell, and graduate students Jennifer Dealy, and Morica Hutchinson, was recently presented at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) 2019 Biennial Meeting, and featured in UConn Today.
Congratulations to HDFS major Mar Amador, HDFS minor (and Public Health major) Sarah Soucy, and fellow teammate Julianne Longman (Marketing major). Their team, Sunshine Initiative, was one of three finalists in the UConn Wellness Case Competition. There were 90 student entries to the competition. This team based their concept on the belief that UConn should provide more outdoor spaces for studying.
“My idea is for UConn to provide spaces outdoors ideal for studying or recreation, whether they be picnic tables by the lakes or more benches near our greens,” the idea said. “I think this will do a great deal for student’s mental health, community engagement and academic performance.” They also discussed the desire to have swings on campus and the joy that swinging gives anyone, not just children.
It was such a pleasure to see these students present at the AOD (Alcohol and Other Drugs) Stakeholders Call to Action Conference. You can read more about the competition in the UConn Daily Campus.
Two students graduated from our doctoral program in Fall 2018 – Dr. Hyeseong Kang and Dr. Courtney Lincoln. Currently, Hyeseong is a Team Manager of the Research and Evaluation Team at Dream Start in Korea. Courtney is a Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University working with Dr. Matia Finn-Stevenson to evaluate the Mutt-i-gees Curriculum, a curriculum that teaches students social and emotional skills with the help of human-canine interaction. Congratulations to our graduates!
Twelve HDFS faculty and ten HDFS graduate students will be giving presentations at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) 2019 Biennial Meeting, on March 21-23. See attached list of those presenting.
Congratulations to graduate students Eleanor Fisk and Yuan Zhang, who both received the IBACS Graduate Summer Fellowships from the CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Beth Russell and student Kasey Macedo, who received a SHARE award for their project The PRISM Project: A Mindfulness Intervention for Substance Abuse.
Associate Professor Rachel Tambling and doctoral candidate Thomas Bischoff’s research was featured in an article entitled, “Why Clients Stop Going to Therapy” in UConn Today, and presented at the National Council on Family Relations Conference 2018. Read the article.
Six HDFS faculty and nine HDFS graduate students will be giving presentations at the 2018 National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) Annual Conference in San Diego, on November 7-10. See attached list of those presenting.
Congratulations to HDFS doctoral student Emily Simpson, who received the Society for Research in Child Development Dissertation Funding Award. This award is given for research proposals that merit special recognition and display the strong potential to contribute to the field of child development.
Nine HDFS graduate students and seven HDFS faculty gave 23 presentations at the 2018 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), which was held in Minneapolis, MN, April 11-15, 2018. See the list of the participants (UConn HDFS is indicated in bold and students are indicated with *).
Research by Associate Professor Beth Russell, and graduate students Jennifer Dealy, and Morica Hutchinson, was recently presented at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) 2019 Biennial Meeting, and featured in UConn Today.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Beth Russell and student Kasey Macedo, who received a SHARE award for their project The PRISM Project: A Mindfulness Intervention for Substance Abuse.
Congratulations to HDFS doctoral student Emily Simpson, who received the Society for Research in Child Development Dissertation Funding Award. This award is given for research proposals that merit special recognition and display the strong potential to contribute to the field of child development.