What is a cookie?
A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any web page. The usefulness of the cookie is that the website is able to remember your visit when you return to browse it. Although many people do not know, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the browsers for the World Wide Web first appeared.
What is NOT a cookie?
It is not a virus, a Trojan, a worm, spam, spyware or a pop-up window.
What kind of information does a cookie store?
Cookies do not usually store sensitive information about you, such as credit cards or bank details, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. The data they store is of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalization of contents, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person but as a web browser. In fact, if you browse regularly with Internet Explorer and try browsing the same website with Firefox or Chrome, you will see that the website does not realize that you are the same person because you are actually associating the browser, not the person.
Which kinds of cookies are there?
- Technical Cookies: These are the most basic and allow, among other things, to know whether a human or an automated application is browsing the site, whether an anonymous user or a registered one is surfing, and basic tasks for the functioning of any dynamic web.
- Analysis Cookies: They collect information about the type of navigation you are carrying out, the sections you use the most, the products you consult, the time of use, the language, etc.
- Advertising Cookies: They display advertising based on your browsing habits, country of origin, language, etc.
What are first and third-party cookies?
First-party cookies are those generated by the sites you are visiting, and the third-party ones are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if I disable cookies?
To help you understand the extent to which you can disable cookies, here are a few examples:
- You will not be able to share content from this website on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media.
- The website will not be able to adapt the content to your personal preferences, as is often the case in online shops.
- You will not be able to access the personal area of that website, such as My Account, or My Profile or My Orders.
- Online stores: You will not be able to make online purchases; they will have to be by telephone or visiting the physical store if it is near you.
- It will not be possible to customize your geographical preferences such as time zone, currency or language.
- The website will not be able to perform web analytics on visitors and traffic, which will make it difficult for the website to be competitive.
- You will not be able to write on the blog, you will not be able to upload photos, publish comments, review or rate content. The website will not be able to know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
- It will not be possible to show sectorized advertising, which will reduce the advertising income of the web.
- All social networks use cookies; if you deactivate them you will not be able to use any social network.
Can I delete cookies?
Yes, not only can you delete them but also block them, in a general or particular way for a specific domain.
To delete cookies from a website you must go to the settings of your browser and there you can search for those associated with the domain in question and proceed to delete them.
Cookie settings for the most popular browsers
Here we show you how to access a specific cookie from your Chrome browser. Note: These steps may vary depending on the browser version:
- Go to Settings or Preferences using the File menu or by clicking on the customization icon at the top right.
- You will see different sections, click on Show advanced options.
- Go to Privacy, Content Settings.
- Select All Cookies and Site Data.
- A list of all cookies sorted by domain will appear. To make it easier for you to find the cookies for a particular domain, enter part or all of the address in the Search for cookies field.
- After carrying out this filter, one or more lines with the cookies of the requested website will appear on the screen. Now all you have to do is select it and press the X to delete it.
To access your Internet Explorer browser’s cookie settings, follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Tools, Internet Options
- Click on Privacy.
- Move the slider to adjust the privacy level you want.
To access your Firefox browser’s cookie settings, follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Options or Preferences according to your operating system.
- Click on Privacy.
- Under History choose “Use a custom setting for history”.
- You will now see the Accept cookies option; you can enable or disable it according to your preferences.
To access your Safari browser’s cookie settings for OSX, follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- Here, you’ll see the Block Cookies option to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.
To access your Safari browser’s cookie settings for iOS, follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Settings, then Safari.
- Under Privacy and Security, you’ll see the Block Cookies option to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.
To access your browser’s cookie settings for Android devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version):
1.Open the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.
- Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the Accept Cookies option and from there you just enable or disable the checkbox.
To access your browser’s cookie settings for Windows Phone devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
- You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies checkbox.
