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 return to browse that page. Although many people do not know the 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 cards or bank details, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. The data they save is of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalization of contents, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person but your web browser. In fact, if you regularly browse Internet Explorer and try to navigate the same website with Firefox or Chrome, you will see that the website does not realize that you are the same person because you are actually associating the browser, not the person. < / p>
What kind of cookies exist?
- Cookies techniques: 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 navigate, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.
- Cookies analysis: They 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 browsing, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are the own and third-party cookies ?
The own cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting and the of third parties are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if I deactivate the cookies ?
So that you understand the scope that may have to deactivate the cookies we show you 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 the contents to your personal preferences, as is usually 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 stores: You will not be able to make online purchases, they will have to be telephone or visiting the physical store if you have one.
- It will not be possible to customize your geographical preferences 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 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 can the web know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam .
- Sectorized advertising cannot be displayed, which will reduce the advertising revenue of the web.
- All social networks use cookies , if you deactivate them you will not be able to use any social network.
Can the cookies be deleted?
Yes. Not only delete, but also block, in a general or particular way for a specific domain.
To remove the cookies from a website you must go to the configuration of your browser and there you can search for those associated to the domain in question and proceed to its removal.
Configuration of cookies for the most popular 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 through the File menu or by clicking the customization icon that appears at the top right.
- You will see different sections, click on the Show advanced options option.
- 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 given domain, enter the address partially or totally in the Search cookies field.
- After completing 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 cookies settings of the Internet Explorer browser follow these steps (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 cookies settings of the Firefox browser, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
- Click on Privacy .
- In History choose Use custom settings for history .
- Now you will see the Accept cookies option, you can activate or deactivate it according to your preferences.
To access the cookies settings of the browser Safari for OSX follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Preferences , then Privacy .
- In this place you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking you wish to perform.
To access the cookies settings of the browser Safari for iOS follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Settings , then Safari .
- Go to Privacy and Security , you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking you wish to perform.
To access the browser’s cookies 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 option Accept cookies to activate or deactivate the box.
To access the browser’s cookies settings for Windows Phone devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer , then More , then Settings
- You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies box.
