# Categories

The four kinds of cookies and what goes where.

| In the dashboard | In the banner | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Required | Necessary | The site does not work without it: logins, carts, security, and the stored consent choice itself. Always on. |
| Preferences | Preferences | Remembers a setting, such as language, region, a closed pop-up or the state of a chat widget. |
| Statistics | Analytics | Measures how the site is used, for example Google Analytics, Hotjar and Clarity. Cookieless tools such as Plausible need no consent and run for everyone. |
| Advertising | Marketing | Shows or measures ads, or tracks visitors across sites, for example Meta Pixel, Google Ads, LinkedIn, TikTok, and embedded YouTube videos and Maps. |

The banner's second layer shows one switch per category, each with a short description. The cookie list page groups cookies by the same categories.

If you disagree with how something was categorised, change **Used for** on the site's Cookies tab. Your choice is kept in future checks, and the banner, the cookie list page and the rules for what is held back update straight away. Labelling an ad pixel as Required is the most common thing regulators fine, so when in doubt, pick the stricter category.