What is a cookie?
A cookie is a harmless text file which is stored in your browser when you visit almost any web page. Cookies are used so that the website can remember your visit when you return to the page. Although many people do not know it, cookies have been in use for 20 years, since the first browsers for the World Wide Web.
What Is a cookie not?
It is not a virus or a Trojan, not a worm, or spam, or spyware, and it does not open pop-up windows.
What information does a cookie store?
Cookies do not generally store sensitive information about you, such as credit card or bank account information, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. The data stored are technical data, personal preferences, content personalization, etc.
The web server does not associate with you as a person, but rather with your web browser. In fact, if you regularly browse with Internet Explorer and try to browse 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.
How do we use cookies?
We use cookies to track your use of our website. This enables us to understand how you use the site and track any patterns with regards how you are using our website. This helps us to develop and improve our website as well as products and / or services in response to what you might need or want.
Cookies are either:
– Session cookies: these are only stored on your computer during your web session and are automatically deleted when you close your browser – they usually store an anonymous session ID allowing you to browse a website without having to log in to each page but they do not collect any personal data from your computer; or
– Persistent cookies: a persistent cookie is stored as a file on your computer and it remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the website that created it when you visit that website again. We use persistent cookies for Google Analytics.
What type of cookies exist?
Technical Cookies: These are the most basic and allow, among other things, you to know when it is a human or an automated application browsing, when an anonymous user is browsing and one registered, basic tasks for running any dynamic website.
Analysis Cookies: Collect information on the type of browsing being done, the sections most used, consulted products, time zone of use, language, etc.
Advertising cookies: Display advertising based on their navigation, their country of origin, language, etc.
What is a first-party cookie and a third-party cookie?
First-party cookies are generated by the page you are visiting and third-party cookies are generated by external providers or services like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if you disable cookies?
To understand the scope of what happens when you disable cookies, here are a few examples:
- You cannot share the content of this website on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
- The website will not adapt the content to your personal preferences, as often happens in online shops.
- You cannot access the personal area of the website, such as My account, or My Profile or My Orders.
- Online shops: It will be impossible to make online purchases, they would have to be by phone or by physically going to the physical store if there is one.
- It will not be possible to customize your geographic preferences as time zone, currency or language.
- The website can not perform web analytics about visitors and web traffic, making it difficult for the website to be competitive.
- You can’t write on blogs, you can not upload photos, post comments, like or rate content. The website may also not know whether you are a human or an automated application that posts spam.
- No targeted advertising can be shown, reducing the website’s advertising revenue.
- 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 can they be deleted, they can also be blocked generally or specifically for a specific domain.
To delete the cookies of a website, go to your browser settings and there you can find the cookies associated with the domain in question and delete them.
Configuration of cookies for the most popular browsers
Below we explain how to access a specific cookie of the Chrome browser. Note: these steps may vary depending on the browser version:
- Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking the customisation icon that appears in the top right.
- To see different sections, click Show Advanced Options.
- Go to Privacy, Content configuration.
- Select All cookies and site data.
- A list will appear with all cookies ordered by domain. To make it easier to find the cookies of a specific domain, partially or fully enter the address in the Search cookies field.
- After filtering, one or more lines with the cookies of the website requested will appear on the screen. Now you just have to select it and press X to delete them.
To access the cookies configuration of the Internet Explorer browser, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Tools, Internet Options
- Click Privacy.
- Move the slider to adjust the level of privacy you want.
To access the cookies configuration of the Firefox browser follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Options or Preferences according to your operative system.
Click Privacy. - In History choose Use custom settings for history.
- Now you will see the Accept cookies option, you can turn them on or off according to your preferences.
To access the cookies configuration of the Safari for OSX browser follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- Here you can see the Block cookies option to adjust the type of block you want.
To access the cookies of the Safari for iOS browser, follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Settings, then Safari.
- Go to Privacy and Security, go to the Block cookies option to adjust the type of block you want.
To access the browser cookies of the browser for Android devices, follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Run the browser and press Menu key, then Settings.
- Go to Security and Privacy, go to the Accept cookies option to check or uncheck the box.
To access the cookies configuration of the browser for Windows Phone devices, follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Configuration
- Now you can check or uncheck the Allow cookies box.