More information about cookies
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 navigate to that page again. Although many people do not know it, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.
What is not a cookie?
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 card or bank details, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. The data they save is of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalization of content, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person but with your web browser. In fact, if you normally surf with Internet Explorer and try to surf the same website with Firefox or Chrome, you will see that the website does not realize that you are the same person because it is actually associating the browser, not the person.
What type 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 user and a registered user are 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 depending 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 you disable cookies?
So that you understand the scope that deactivating cookies can have, we showed you some examples:
- You will not be able to share the contents of this 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 this website, such as My Account, My Profile or My Orders.
- Online stores: It will be impossible for you to make online purchases, they will have to be by phone or by visiting the physical store if you have 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, rate or rate content. The web will also not be able to know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
- You will not be able to display segmented advertising, which will reduce the advertising revenue 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 settings and there you can search for those associated with the domain in question and proceed with their deletion.
Cookie settings for the most popular browsers
Here’s how to access a particular cookie from the Chrome browser (these steps may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by tapping the Personalization icon at the top right.
- You will see different sections, tap the option 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 for you 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 will appear on the screen with the cookies of the requested website. Now you just have to select it and press the X to proceed with its removal.
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 Privacy.
- Move the selector to adjust the level of privacy you want.
To access the cookies settings of the Firefox browser follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
- Click Privacy.
- Under History choose Use a custom setting for history.
- You will now see the Accept cookies option, you can activate or deactivate it according to your preferences.
To access the cookies settings of the Safari browser for OSX follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):
- Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- On this site you will see the option Block cookies so that you can 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 Block cookies option so you can 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 option Accept cookies so 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):
- Internet Explorer required, then More, then Settings.
- You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies box.