First party cookies
The term first party cookies refers to the ability of organizations to collect relevant information about the target audience. A first party cookie is a text file that is present on a website and actually comes from that particular website. The designation "first" refers to this. After all, if the text file came from another website, it would be a third-party cookie. A first party cookie is therefore located in the domain of the website and (unlike external cookies) is loaded directly. The functionality of first party cookies are therefore specific to the domain in question. First party cookies are thus deployed to collect onsite information and cannot function elsewhere as is the case with third party cookies.
A cookie provides opportunities to collect data through a pixel installed on a website. For example, this could be a Google Analytics pixel. After consent via the cookie wall on the website, the pixel drops a cookie on the user's browser. The cookie tracks the user's behavior on the website. This could include information about the pages a user has visited on a specific website or which items from a webshop have been placed in a shopping cart.
Functionalities of a first party cookie
Because the functionalities of a website are often severely limited if no permission to place cookies is given, many website visitors almost automatically choose to have first party cookie files accepted by the browsers. After the termination of a session or when a preset length of time has expired, first party cookies will automatically expire again. The functionalities of a first party cookie may include measuring the number of unique visitors to a website and the length of time a visitor spends on the website, i.e., the dwell time or the average time on site.
