What is a cookie?
A cookie is a harmless text that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any webpage. The purpose of a cookie is that the web can remember your visit when you navigate to that page again. Many people aren’t aware that cookies have been used for 20 years, since the first browsers appeared for the World Wide Web.
What is NOT a cookie?
It is not a virus, nor a Trojan, nor a worm, nor spam, nor spyware, nor opens pop-up windows.
What information does a cookie store?
Cookies do not usually store sensitive information, such as credit cards or bank details, photographs, ID or personal information, etc. The data they keep are of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalization of contents, etc.
The web server does not link to you as a person rather to your web browser. In fact, if you regularly surf with Internet Explorer and try browsing the same web with Firefox or Chrome you will see that the web does not realize that you are the same person as cookies are linked to the browser not the person.
What kind of cookies are there?
Technical Cookies: These are the most basic and allow, among other things, to recognise when a human or an automated application is navigating, when an anonymous user and a registered user navigate, which basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic web.
Analysis Cookies: Collect information about the type of navigation you are doing, the sections you use most, products consulted, time zone of use, language, etc.
Advertising Cookies: Show advertising based on your navigation, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are your own and third-party cookies?
Your own cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting and those of third parties are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if I turn off cookies?
To understand the implications of turning cookies off here are 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 its contents to your personal preferences, as is often the case 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: You will not be able to make purchases online, they must be by telephone or in-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 about visitors and traffic on the web, which will make it difficult for the web to be competitive.
- You will not be able to write on the blog, upload photos, post comments, rate or rate content. The web also will not know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
- You will not be able to show sectored advertising, which will reduce the advertising revenues 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 just deleted but also blocked, in general or for a specific domain.
To remove cookies from a website you must go to the configuration of your browser and there you can search for those associated with the domain in question and remove them.
Configuring cookies for more popular browsers
To access the cookie settings of Chrome follow these steps (These steps may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Settings or Preferences using the File menu or by clicking the customization icon on the top right.
- You will see different sections, click ‘Show advanced options’.
- Go to Privacy, Content Settings.
- Select All cookies and site data.
- A list with all the cookies sorted by domain will appear. To make it easier for you to find the cookies for a given domain, enter the address in the Search for cookies field, in whole or in part.
- A filter will appear on the screen with the cookies of the requested web. Now you just need select it and press the X to delete it.
To access the cookie settings of Internet Explorer follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Tools, Internet Options
- Click on ‘Privacy’.
- Move the slider until you adjust the level of privacy you want.
To access the cookies configuration of Firefox follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
- Click on ‘Privacy’.
- In History choose ‘Use custom settings for the 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 Safari for OSX follow these steps (they can vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- You will see the ‘Block cookies option’ to adjust the type of block you want to perform.
To access the cookies configuration of Safari for iOS follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Settings, then to Privacy and Security
- You will see the ‘Block Cookies’ option to adjust the type of lock you want to perform.
To access the browser cookies settings 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 option ‘Accept cookies’ to activate or deactivate the checkbox.
To access the browser cookies settings for Windows Phone devices follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
- Now you can enable or disable the Allow cookies box.