What types of people most likely to be tracked online via cookies

The results show the importance of being on the lookout for sites with lots of social media sharing buttons or embedded media and check whether you trust those extra  platforms.

According to the research by NordVPN, a leading virtual private network (VPN) service provider, US business people are the most likely types of persons to be tracked online, while the German techie types are the least out of six types of people surveyed.

"Cookies are built into the design of the web, and they are needed for a website to record data and remember things. They allow us to stay logged in, return to our  shopping baskets, and have important information remembered by a website," NordVPN digital privacy expert Daniel Markuson said.

Cookies can be necessary for functionality and overall experience online, but they can also be used for analytics and tracking.

The study results found that the German techie type of users performed best when it came to dealing with cookies. The total number of cookies they allowed during the study period was 379, which was the lowest among the types of people surveyed.

Only 80 of these (21.11 per cent) were third-party cookies. They also averaged only 1.22 ad cookies per site.

"The French creative type also performed well in terms of managing their privacy online through cookies. This user type amassed 447 cookies over the period, and 148  (33.11 per cent) of these were third-party cookies, while averaging only 1.32 ad cookies per site," the findings showed.

The UK teacher and Canadian student personas were middle-of-the-ground performers in managing privacy through cookies online, both accumulating slightly above 550 cookies  during the study period.

The Australian parent and US business person type both performed very poorly in terms of online privacy with cookies.

"Both personas had well over 950 total cookies each, and the Australian parent had close to 387 (36.72 per cent) third-party cookies, while the US business person persona  had 549 (56.83 per cent)," the report showed.

"When it comes to unnecessary cookies, it may be best to consider rejecting them, even if this takes a little extra effort. Additionally, clearing your cookies regularly is not a bad idea. Many of these cookies stick around for several years, especially those that track you across sites," said Markuson.

NordVPN is the world's most advanced VPN service provider used by over 14 million internet users worldwide.