5.0 P3P Cookie Element
The cookies element should be used whenever HTTP cookies are set or retrieved by a site. Please note that cookies is a variable data element and requires the explicit declaration of usage categories in a policy.

In almost every case, the category selected should be State Management Mechanisms since the cookies are a mechanism for maintaining a stateful session with a user or automatically recognizing users who have visited a particular site or accessed particular content previously.

5.1 P3P Cookie Declaration
A cookie policy MUST cover any data (within the scope of P3P) that is stored in that cookie or linked via that cookie. It MUST also reference all purposes associated with data stored in that cookie or enabled by that cookie. In addition, any data/purpose stored or linked via a cookie MUST also be put in the cookie policy.

5.2 Compact Policies
Compact policies are summarized P3P policies that provide hints to user agents to enable the user agent to make quick, synchronous decisions about applying policy. Compact policies are a performance optimization that is OPTIONAL for either user agents or servers. User agents that are unable to obtain enough information from a compact policy to make a decision according to a user's preferences SHOULD fetch the full policy.

To determine if your compact policy string is valid, use our P3P compact policy validator.

Note: Although compact policies are optional for P3P compliance, they are required by Microsoft® Internet Explorer to determine the Web site's privacy practices concerning cookies.