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 navigate through that page. Although many people do not know this, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.

What IS NOT a cookie?

It's not a virus, or a Trojan horse, or a worm, or spam, or 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 card 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 rather with your web browser. In fact, if you regularly browse Internet Explorer and try browsing the same web with Firefox or Chrome you will see that the web doesn't realize that you are the same person because you are actually associating the browser, not the person.

What kind of cookies are there?

  • Cookies techniques: They are the most elementary and allow, among other things, to know when a human being is surfing or an automated application, when an anonymous user and a registered one navigates, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic web.
  • Cookies analysis: Collect information about the type of navigation you are making, the sections you use most frequently, products consulted, time of use, language, etc.
  • Cookies advertising: They display advertising according to your browsing, your country of origin, language, etc.

What are your own cookies and those of third parties?

The own cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting and the of third are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc..

What happens if you turn off cookies ?

To help you understand the extent to which you can disable cookies, here are a few examples:

  • You may not share content from that site 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 shops.
  • You will not be able to access the personal area of this website, such as My account, or My profile or My orders.
  • Online shops: You will be unable to make online purchases, 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 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 website to be competitive.
  • You will not be able to post on the blog, upload photos, post comments, rate or rate content. The website will also not be able to tell whether you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
  • It will not be possible to show sector 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?

Yeah. Yeah. Not only remove, but also block, in a general or particular way for a specific domain.

To delete cookies from a website you must go to the configuration of your browser and there you can search for those associated with the domain in question and proceed to delete them.

Configuration of cookies for the most popular browsers

Here's how to access a specific cookie 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 on the customization icon at the top right.
  • You will see different sections, click on the option Show advanced.
  • Go to Privacy, Content Settings.
  • Select All cookies and site data.
  • A list of all cookies sorted by domain appears. To make it easier for you to find the cookies of a certain domain, enter the address partially or completely in the field Search for cookies.
  • After performing this filter, one or more lines will appear on the screen with the cookies of the requested website. Now just select it and press X to delete it.

To access the configuration of cookies of the browser Internet Explorer follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):

  • Go to Tools, Internet Options
  • Click on Privacy.
  • Move the slider until the desired privacy level is set.

To access the configuration of cookies of the browser Firefox follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):

  • Go to Options or Preferences according to your operating system.
  • Click on Privacy.
  • In History choose Use a custom setting for the history.
  • Now you will see the option Accept cookies, you can enable or disable it according to your preferences.

To access the configuration of cookies 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 block you want to make.

To access the configuration of cookies of the browser Safari 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 blocking you want to do.

To access the configuration of cookies of the device browser Android follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):

  • Run the browser and press the key Menu, then Settings.
  • Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the option Accept cookies to enable or disable the check box.

To access the configuration of cookies of the device browser Windows Phone follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):

  • Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Configuration
  • You can now enable or disable the Enable cookies check box .