Cookies or any other form of local storage use have a function and a purpose. A function is a particular task a cookie has. So a function can be “store the IP address”. Purpose can be seen as the Why behind the function. So maybe the IP address is stored because it is needed for Statistics, or it is stored because it is used for marketing/tracking purposes or is needed for functional purposes.
There are five purpose categories used in Cookiedatabase: statistics-anonymous, statistics/analytics, marketing/tracking, functional, and preferences. These five are explained below.
1 Statistics-Anonymous
Cookies or any other form of local storage that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes (Anonymous Analytics Cookies), that are placed on a first-party domain. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
2 Statistics/analytics (also known as performance)
Cookies or any other form of local storage that is used exclusively for statistical purposes (Analytics Cookies). These are also known as “performance cookies”.
3 Marketing/Tracking (also known as Ad-storage, or social media)
Cookies or any other form of local storage required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
4 Functional (also known as technical, essential or strictly necessary)
The cookie or any other form of local storage is used for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network;
OR
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user. If cookies are disabled, the requested functionality will not be available. This makes them essential functional cookies. Sometimes these cookies are also called “strictly necessary” or “technical”.
5 Preferences Cookies (in some jurisdictions known as functionality)
Cookies or any other form of local storage that can not be seen as statistics-anonymous, statistics, marketing, or functional, and where the technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences. Note however that if saving preferences is actually a functionality “requested” by the subscriber or the user, they can be categorized under “Functional”.
