What is a cookie?
A cookie is an inoffensive text file which is stored on your browser when you visit almost any website. The cookie is used so that the website is able to remember your visit when you browse that page again. Although many people aren’t aware, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers emerged for the World Wide Web.
What is a cookie NOT?
It is not a virus, or a trojan, or worm, or spam, or spyware, nor does it open pop-up windows.
What information does a cookie store?
Cookies do not usually store sensitive information about your, such as credit cards or bank details, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. The information they store is of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalisation of contents, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person, but as your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse using Internet Explorer and try to browse on the same website with Firefox or Chrome, you will see that the website doesn’t realise it’s the same person because in reality it is associating the browser, not the person.
What type of cookies are there?
- Technical cookies: They are the most fundamental cookies and they enable, among other things, knowing when a human or automated application is browsing, when an anonymous or registered user is browsing, basic tasks for the working of any dynamic website.
- Analytical cookies: They collect information about the type of browsing you are carrying out, the sections you use most, products you look at, timezone of use, language, etc.
- Advertising cookies: They show advertisements according to your browsing, 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 I disable the cookies?
In order for you to understand the scope of disabling the cookies, we show you some examples:
- You won’t be able to share contents from 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 with online shops.
- You won’t be able to access the personal area of that website, for example My account, or My profile or My orders.
- Online shops: It will be impossible to make online purchases, they will have to be done by telephone or by physically visiting the shop if they have one.
- It won’t be possible to personalise your geographical preferences such as timezone, currency or language.
- The website will not be able to carry out web analytics about visitors and traffic to the website, which will make it difficult for the website to be competitive.
- You won’t be able to write in the blog, upload photos, publish comments, evaluate or rate contents. The website won’t know if you are human or an automated application that posts spam.
- It won’t be possible to show sectorised advertising, which will reduce the advertising income of the website.
- All social networks usecookies, if you deactivate them, you won’t be able to use any social network.
Can cookies be deleted?
Yes. Not just deleted, also blocked, in general or for a specific domain.
To delete cookies from a website, you should go to your browser settings and look for the cookies associated with the domain in question and then delete them.
Configuring cookies for the most popular browsers
Below we explain 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 personalisation icon that appears at the top right.
- You will see different sections, click on the option Show advanced options.
- Go to Privacy, Content settings.
- Select All of the cookies and site data.
- A list of all of the cookies will appear ordered by domain. To make it easier to find the cookies of a specific domain, partially or fully enter the address in the field Search cookies.
- After carrying out this filter, one or several lines will appear on the screen with the cookies of the requested website. Now you just need to select it and click X to delete them.
To access the cookies settings for the Internet Explorer browser, 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 privacy level you desire.
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 select Use a personalised setting for the History.
- Now you will see the option Accept cookies, you can enable or disable this depending on your preferences.
To access the cookies settings of the Safari for OSX browser, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- Here you will see the option Block cookies so that you can adjust the type of block you wish to set.
To access the cookies settings of the Safari for iOS browser, 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 so that you can adjust the type of block you wish to set.
To access the cookies settings of the browser for Android devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open the browser and press the Menu button, then Settings.
- Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the option Accept cookies so that you can enable or disable the box.
To access the cookies settings of the browser for Windows Phone devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
- Now you can enable or disable the box Allow cookies.
