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 cookie's usefulness is that the web will be able to remember your visit when you browse that page again. Although many people do not know the cookies have been used for 20 years, when 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 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 DNI or personal information, etc. The data they keep are of technical character, personal preferences, personalization of contents, etc. The Web server does not associate you as a person if not your Web browser. In fact, if you usually navigate with Internet Explorer and try to navigate the same web with Firefox or Chrome you will see that the web does not realize that you are the same person because you are actually associating the browser, not the person.
What kind of cookies exist?
- Technical cookies: They are the most elementary and allow, among other things, to know when you are browsing a human or an automated application, when you navigate an anonymous user and one registered, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic web.
- Analysis Cookies: Collect information about the type of navigation you are making, the sections you use most, products consulted, time zone of use, language, etc.
- Advertising cookies: They show publicity depending on their browsing, their 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 suppliers like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if I deactivate cookies?
To understand the scope that can disable cookies we show some examples:
- You will not be able to share content from that website on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
- The web site 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, or my profile or my orders.
- Online Stores: You will be unable to make online purchases, they will have to be phone or visit the physical store if you have it.
- You will not be able to customize your geographic preferences as a time slot, currency or language.
- The web site will not be able to perform web analytics on visitors and traffic on the web, making it difficult for the web to be competitive.
- You cannot write on the blog, you will not be able to upload photos, post comments, evaluate or rate content. The web will also not know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
- Sectioned advertising will not be displayed, which will reduce web 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 delete, also block, generally or particular for a specific domain. To remove the cookies from a Web site you must go to the settings of your browser and there you can find those associated with the domain in question and proceed to delete it.
Setting cookies for more polulares browsers
Here's how to access a specific cookie from the Chrome browser. Note: These steps may vary depending on the browser version:
- Go to settings or preferences using the File menu or by clicking the customization icon that appears above to the right.
- You will see different sections, click the Show advanced options option.
- Go to privacy, content settings.
- Select All cookies and site data.
- A listing will appear with all cookies sorted by domain. To make it easier for you to find cookies from a given domain, enter partial or fully the address in the Search Cookies field.
- After making this filter one or more lines will appear on the screen with the cookies of the requested web. Now just select it and press the X to proceed to delete it.
To access the Internet Explorer browser cookie settings Follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Tools, Internet options
- Click on Privacy.
- Move the slider to adjust the level of privacy you want.
To access the Firefox browser cookie settings Follow these steps (they can vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to options or preferences depending on your operating system.
- Click on Privacy.
- In history choose use a custom settings for the history.
- Now you will see the Accept cookies option, you can turn it on or off according to your preferences.
To access the cookie setting of the Safari browser for OSX follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to preferences, then privacy.
- In this place you will see the block Cookies option to adjust the type of lock you want to perform.
To access the cookie settings of the Safari browser for IOS follow these steps (they can vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Settings, then Safari.
- Go 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 cookie settings for Android devices Follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Run the browser and press the menu key, then settings.
- Go to security and privacy, you will see the Accept cookies option to enable or clear the checkbox.
To access the browser cookie settings for Windows Phone devices Follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, then more, then Setup
- You can now enable or disable the Allow Cookies checkbox.