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 it enables the website to remember your visit when you return to browse that page. Although many people do not know, cookies have been used for 20 years, right back to when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.
What IS NOT a cookie?
A cookie is not a virus, nor a Trojan, nor a worm, nor spam, nor spyware, nor does it open windows pop-up.
What information does a cookie store?
Cookies usually do not store sensitive information about you, such as credit cards or bank details, photographs, your ID or any other personal information. The data kept is of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalization of contents, etc.
The web server does not associate with you the person but your web browser. In fact, if you regularly browse Internet Explorer and try to navigate through the same website with Firefox or Chrome you will see that the web does not realize that you are the same person because it is associating with the browser, not the person.
What type of cookies exist?
• Technical cookies: These are the most basic and allow, among other things, the knowledge that a human or an automated application is browsing or an anonymous and registered user is navigating basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic web.
• Analysis cookies: They collect information about the type of navigation you do, the sections you use most, products consulted, time band of use, language, etc.
• Advertising cookies: Display adverts based on your browsing, country of origin, language, etc.
What are our own and third-party cookies?
Own cookies are those generated by the pages you are visiting. Third parties cookies are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if I disable cookies?
To understand the scope of disabling cookies it is easier to give some examples:
- You cannot share content from the website on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network
- The website will not be able to adapt the contents to your personal preferences, which is what usually happens when shopping online
- You cannot access the personal area of a website, such as My account; My profile or My orders
- Online stores: You are not allowed to purchase anything online, you will have to do it by telephone or physically visit the store
- 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 on the web which will make it difficult for the website to be competitive
- You cannot write on a blog. You cannot upload photos; post comments or rate content. The web will be unable to identify if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam
- Advertising cannot be displayed, which will reduce the advertising revenue of the website
- All social networks use cookies, if you deactivate them, you will not be able to use any social network
Can cookies be deleted?
Yes, not only can they be deleted but also blocked, in a general or specific way for a particular domain.
To delete cookies from a website you must go to your browser settings and search the associated cookies for the domain in question and proceed to delete the selected cookies.
How to set cookies for the most popular browsers?
Here’s how to access a specific cookie in the Chrome browser. Note: these steps may vary depending on the browser version:
1. Go to Settings or Preferences through the File menu or by clicking the personalization icon that appears at the top right.
2. You will see different sections, click the option Show advanced options.
3. Go to Privacy, Content Settings.
4. Select All cookies and site data.
5. A list with all the cookies ordered by domain will appear. To make it easier for you to find the cookies of a certain domain, enter the address partially or completely in the Search cookies field.
6. After completing this filter, one or several lines with the cookies of the requested web appear on the screen. Now you just have to select it and press the X to proceed with its elimination.
To access the cookie settings of the Internet Explorer browser follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
1. Go to Tools, Internet Options
2. Click on Privacy.
3. Move the slider to adjust the level of privacy you want.
To access the cookie settings of the Firefox browser follow these steps (may vary depending on the version of the browser):
1. Go to Options or Preferences according to your operating system.
2. Click on Privacy.
3. In History choose Use custom settings for history.
4. Now you will see the option Accept cookies, you can activate or deactivate it according to your preferences.
To access the cookies configuration of the Safari browser for OSX follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
1. Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
2. In this place you will see the option Block cookies so that you can adjust the type of block you wish to make.
To access the cookies configuration of the Safari browser for iOSfollow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
1. Go to Settings, then Safari.
2. Go to Privacy and Security, you will see the option Block cookies so that you can adjust the type of block you want to make.
To access the browser cookie settings for Android devicesfollow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
1. Run the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.
2. Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the option Accept cookies to activate or deactivate the box.
To access the browser cookie settings for Windows Phonedevices follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
1. Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
2. You can now activate or deactivate the Allow cookies box.
