What is a cookie?
A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any website. 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 this cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers appeared for the World Wide Web.
What is NOT a cookie?
It’s not a virus, a Trojan, a worm, spam, spyware, or 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 technical, personal preferences, content customization, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person but with 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 you are actually associating the browser, not the person.
What kind of cookies are there?
- 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 and registered user navigates, basic tasks for the functioning of any dynamic website.
- Analysis cookies: 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: Display advertising based 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 those of third parties are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if I turn off cookies?
To understand the scope of disabling cookies, here are 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 the 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 telephone or visiting the physical store if you have it.
- It will not be possible to customize your geographical preferences such as time slot, 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 website 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 show sectored advertising, which will reduce the advertising revenue of the website.
- 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, in general or particular for a specific domain.
To remove 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 to its removal.
Cookie settings for the most popular browsers
Here’s how to access a particular Chrome browser cookie. Note: These steps may vary depending on the browser version:
- Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking the customization icon at the top right.
- You will see different sections, click the Show advanced options option.
- Go to Privacy, Content Settings.
- Select All cookies and site data.
- A list will appear with all cookies sorted by domain. To make it easier for you to find the cookies of a certain domain, enter the address partially or totally in the Search cookies field.
- After performing this filter one or more lines will appear on the screen with the cookies of the website requested. Now just select it and press the X to proceed with its removal.
To access the cookie settings of the Internet Explorer browser follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Tools, Internet Options
- Click on Privacy Policy.
- Move the slider until you adjust the level of privacy you want.
To access the cookie settings of the Firefox browser follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Options or Preferences according to your operating system.
- Click on Privacy Policy.
- In History choose Use custom settings for history.
- You will now see the option Accept cookies, you can turn it on or off according to your preferences.
To access the cookie settings of the Safari browser 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 lock you want to perform.
To access the cookie settings of the Safari browser for iOS follow these steps (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 lock you want to perform.
To access the browser cookie settings for Android devices follow these steps (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 enable or disable the box.
To access the browser cookie settings for Windows Phone devices follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
- You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies check box.