Cookies themselves can be broken down into several different categories depending on where they originate and what they're used for. Some cookies are used for single websites, while other gather data from across the web to create a more tailored user experience.

• Session cookie - Session cookies are cookies that specifically link user actions during a single session. Once the user closes the windows, the browser disappears. These are considered secure and are typically used for tracking someone’s clicks so they can recommend products or pages.
• First-party cookies - First-party cookies, like session cookies, are used for single websites in order to track visitors’ behavior. They can be used to recommend products, as well as save a user’s login information, their shopping cart, or other useful information that can streamline the user experience.
• Third-party cookies - Third-party cookies are cookies used by browsers and martech companies to track user behavior across platforms. They can be utilized for retargeting and behavioral advertising, but are less effective post privacy-first.

This guide will help you understand the difference between cookies, tags, trackers, and scripts. Learn how to use them effectively for your business.

While cookies are probably the most well-known type of marketing data generator, there are many other types:

• Trackers - Similar to cookies, trackers are embedded in website code to track site visits, activity, and interests across web platforms. They are essential in helping marketers understand the nuanced interactions in pages, such as how long visitors spend on certain types of content, where they click, and even where the mouse moves during browsing sessions. They can also be used for remarketing and behavior analytics.
• Scripts - Scripts are pieces of code that give different pages more functionality. Scripts can include extensions like Google Analytics or WordPress plugin that can track different user information and streamline the user experience. They also encourage certain actions on a web page such as clicking on different buttons or visiting certain landing pages. If a script fires on, or sends data to, a domain other than the current URL, it's a "cross-domain" script. In privacy-first browsing environments, these often fail to fire. This can lead to catastrophic downstream effects. Website actions aren't tracked. Forms break, ads disappear, and data stops flowing.
• Pixels - Pixels are used for understanding how different marketing platforms are performing and how they relate to actions on your page. For example, if someone clicks on an ad for a product from a different website, you'd want to know which site the click came from so you can invest more marketing dollars there. Pixels send this information so that you can see the bigger picture of how your marketing is working. Pixels are generally JavaScript code or images (gifs).
• Tags - Tags are the keywords used to describe different elements of a page. They can be used to describe pixels and cookies as well as elements like photos and buttons on the site. This is how you track different pixels and learn from the information they send. Tags are, by and large, JavaScript code snippets.

Most martech companies don't break down these differences for clients not only because they're confusing, but also because some of these methods are riskier than others. Using third-party cookies, for example, can put user data at risk if not used properly, and are causing a widening gap of trust between consumer and company.

Confection aims to solve this issue by creating a data generator that puts privacy first. Our data generators won’t be blocked by third-party apps and privacy-first laws, but they will provide you with the same great benefits of martech companies using these current technologies.

No matter what kind of tracker you've used in the past, Confection collects, stores, and distributes data in a way that's unaffected by client-side disruptions involving cookies, cross-domain scripts, and device IDs. It's also compliant with global privacy laws so it’s good for people too.