COOKIE COOKIE GIVE ME A COOKIE

When you click "Accept All Cookies" on a cookie consent banner, a single click authorizes over 1,200 ad tracking companies and data brokers to collect your browsing history, GPS location, and personal data. This cybersecurity explainer shows how cookie tracking, the Meta pixel, in-app browser surveillance, and infostealer malware actually work, and gives you five browser privacy steps you can do in under a minute each.

It starts with my dad. Mikhael Kollander played guitar for The Andy Williams Show in 1969. A guy in a bear costume walked onstage every week begging for cookies. That same year, a programmer at MIT named the world's first piece of malware after it. 57 years later, that word is why your data sells for $10 on underground marketplaces.

Instagram and TikTok inject tracking code into every link you tap inside their apps. Your ad blocker doesn't work inside their built-in browser. A $200/month infostealer subscription called Lumma infected 394,000 computers in two months. One stolen session cookie led to the theft of 780 gigabytes of EA's data, including the FIFA 21 source code. The FBI called the takedown "Operation Cookie Monster."

Five steps to protect your online privacy. Apple App Tracking Transparency. Opening links in Safari instead of in-app browsers. Switching from Chrome to Firefox or Safari. Passkeys. uBlock Origin. Less than a minute each.