What’s a cookie?
A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any web page. The purpose of the cookie is for the website to be able to remember your visit when you return to that page. Although many people do not know, cookies have been used since 20 years ago, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.
What is NOT a cookie?
It is not a virus, a trojan, a worm, spam, spyware, nor does it open pop-up windows.
What 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 save are of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalization of content, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person but as your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse with Internet Explorer and try to navigate the same website with Firefox or Chrome, you will see that the website does not recognize that you are the same person because it is actually associating with the browser, not the person.
What types of cookies exist?
- Technical cookies: They are the most elementary and allow, among other things, to know when a human or an automated application is browsing, when an anonymous and registered user is browsing, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.
- Analysis cookies: They collect information about the type of browsing you are doing, the sections you use the most, products consulted, time slot of use, language, etc.
- Advertising cookies: They show advertising based on your navigation, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are own and third-party cookies?
Own cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting and third-party cookies are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if I disable cookies?
So that you understand the scope of deactivating cookies, we show you some examples:
- You will not be able to share content from that website on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network.
- The website will not be able to adapt the contents to your personal preferences, as usually happens in online stores.
- You will not be able to access the personal area of that website, such as My Account, My Profile, or My Orders.
- Online stores: It will be impossible to make online purchases, they will have to be by phone or by visiting the physical store if it has one.
- It will not be possible to customize your geographic preferences such as time zone, currency, or language.
- The website will not be able to perform web analytics on visitors and web 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, post comments, or rate content. The web will also 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 disable them you will not be able to use any social network.
Can cookies be deleted?
Yes. Not only remove, but also block, generally or specifically for a specific domain.
To delete cookies from a website, you must go to your browser’s settings and there you can search for those associated with the domain in question and delete them.
Cookie configuration for the most popular browsers
Below we show you how to access a specific cookie from the Chrome browser. Note: these steps may vary depending on the browser version:
- Go to Configuration or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking on the personalization icon that appears on 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 will appear with all the cookies sorted by domain. To make it easier to find the cookies of a certain domain, enter the address in part or in full in the Search cookies field.
- After performing this filter, one or more lines with the cookies of the requested website will appear on the screen. Now you only 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 (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Go to Tools, Internet Options
- Click on Privacy.
- Move the slider to adjust the level of privacy you want.
To access the cookies configuration of the Firefox browser follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Go to Options or Preferences according to your operating system.
- Click on Privacy.
- Under History choose Use custom settings for history.
- 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 (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- In this place, you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.
To access the cookie settings of the Safari browser for iOS, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Go to Settings, then Safari.
- Go to Privacy and Security, you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.
To access the cookie settings of the browser for Android devices follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Run the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.
- Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the Accept cookies option to activate or deactivate the box.
To access the cookie settings of the browser for Windows Phone devices follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
- Now you can activate or deactivate the Allow cookies box.
