Cookies are essentially an older way to store data for web pages. The browser knows to attach this information on every request to the website.
Where they got a bad rap is companies like Facebook, Twitter, ect. Started embedding them in the “like” buttons on pages passively tracking every website you went to, whether you were logged in or not. Gaining massive tracking of the whole Internet.
Once people started getting wind of this there was massive pushback against cookies and various legislation was for sites to have to tell you that the site uses cookies for various things and how they track your activities.
Yeah but Bill Clinton began the huge increase in police. Where that and combination of 9/11 has created this vast paramilitarized police force we are still dealing with today. The current iteration of which is the ICE power grab happening.
I guess not doubling down where there is significant tensions is a slight positive difference.