What a cookie is?
A cookie is a harmless text file stored in your browser when you visit almost any web page. The utility of the cookie is that the website is able to remember your visit when you return to browse that page. Although many people do not know it cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers World Wide Web appeared.
What a cookie is not?
It is not a virus, nor a trojan, nor a worm, nor spam, nor 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 store are of a technical nature, personal preferences, customization of content, etc. The web server does not associate you as a person but your web browser. In fact, if you regularly browse 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 because it is in fact associating the browser, not the person.
What kind of cookies exists?
- Technical cookies: They are the most elementary and they allow, among other things, to know when a human or an automated application is browsing an anonymous user and a registered one, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic web.
- Analysis cookies: They collect information about the type of browsing you are doing, the sections you use most, consulted products, time zone of use, language, etc.
- Advertising cookies: Show advertising according to your navigation, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are own cookies and those of third parties?
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 disable cookies?
To understand the scope of disabling cookies, we show some examples:
- You may not share content from that website on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
- The website will not be able to adapt content 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, or My profile or My orders.
- Online shops: It will be impossible to make purchases online, they will have to be by phone or visiting the physical store if you have it.
- It will not be possible to customize your geographical preferences as a time zone, currency or language.
- The website will not be able to perform web analytics on visitors and web traffic, making it difficult for the web to be competitive.
- You will not be able to write on the blog, you will not be able to upload photos, post comments, rate or rate content. Nor will the web be able to tell if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
- It will not be possible to show sectored advertising, which will reduce the advertising revenue of the web.
- All social networks use cookies, if you disable them you cannot use any social network.
Can cookies be deleted?
Yes. Not only deleted, but also blocked, in a general or particular way for a specific domain. To remove cookies from a website it is necessary to go to your browser settings and there you can search for cookies associated with the domain in question and proceed to its removal.
Setting cookies for the most popular browsers.
Here is how to access to a particular cookie of the Chrome browser. Note: these steps may vary depending on the browser version:
- 1. Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking the personalization icon 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 will appear with all cookies sorted by domain. To make it easier for you to find cookies of a certain domain, enter partially or totally the address in the Find cookies field.
- 6. After performing this filter one or more lines will appear on the screen with the cookies of the requested website. Now just select it and press the X to proceed to its removal.
To access to the cookie settings of the Internet Explorer browser follow these steps (it 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 (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- 1. Go to Options or Preferences according to your operating system.
- 2. Click on Privacy.
- 3. In History choose Use a custom configuration for history.
- 4. You will see the Accept cookies option, you can enable or disable it according to your preferences.
To access the cookie settings of the Safari browser for OSX follow these steps (it may vary depending on the browser version):
- 1. Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- 2. 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 (it may vary depending on the browser version):
- 1. Go to Preferences, then Safari.
- 2. Go to Privacy and Security, you will see the Block cookies option to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.
To access the cookie settings for Android devices follow these steps (it 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 Accept cookies option to enable or disable the box.
To access the browser cookie settings for Windows Phone devices follow these steps (it 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.