What is a cookie?
A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any website. The purpose of the cookie is to allow the website to remember your visit when you browse that page again. Although many people don’t know it, cookies have been in use for over 20 years, since the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.
What is NOT a cookie?
It is not a virus, a trojan, a worm, spam or spyware, and it does not 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 store is technical in nature: personal preferences, content customization, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person but rather your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse with Chrome and try browsing the same website with Firefox or Edge, you will see that the website doesn’t realize you are the same person, because it is actually associating the browser, not the person.
What types of cookies are there?
- Technical cookies: These are the most basic and allow, among other things, knowing when a human or an automated application is browsing, or when an anonymous user or a registered user is browsing — basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.
- Analytics cookies: These collect information about the type of browsing you are doing, the sections you use most, products viewed, time of use, language, etc.
- Advertising cookies: These show advertising based on your browsing, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are first-party and third-party cookies?
First-party 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 cookies?
To help you understand the impact that disabling cookies can have, here are 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 content to your personal preferences, as often happens in online stores.
- You will not be able to access the personal area of that website, such as My account, My profile or My orders.
- Online stores: It will be impossible for you to make online purchases; they will have to be made by phone or by visiting the physical store, if there is one.
- 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 traffic, which will make it harder for the website to be competitive.
- You will not be able to write on the blog, upload photos, post comments, or rate content. The website will also not be able to know whether you are a human or an automated application posting spam.
- Targeted advertising cannot be shown, which will reduce the website’s 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 deleted, but also blocked, either generally or specifically for a particular domain.
To delete a website’s cookies, go to your browser settings, where you can search for those associated with the domain in question and delete them.
Cookie settings for the most popular browsers
Below we explain how to access a specific cookie in 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 at the top right.
- You will see different sections; click the Show advanced settings option.
- Go to Privacy, Content settings.
- Select All cookies and site data.
- A list of all cookies sorted by domain will appear. To make it easier to find the cookies for a particular domain, enter part or all of the address in the Search cookies field.
- After applying this filter, one or more lines with the cookies of the requested website will appear on screen. Now just select it and press the X to delete it.
To access the cookie settings of the Internet Explorer browser, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Tools, Internet Options.
- Click Privacy.
- Move the slider to set the privacy level you want.
To access the cookie 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 Privacy.
- Under History, choose Use custom settings for history.
- You will now see the Accept cookies option; you can enable or disable it according to your preferences.
To access the cookie 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 Block cookies option, where you can set the type of blocking you want.
To access the cookie 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 & Security; you will see the Block cookies option, where you can set the type of blocking you want.
To access the cookie settings of the browser on Android devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.
- Go to Security and Privacy; you will see the Accept cookies option, where you can check or uncheck the box.
To access the cookie settings of the browser on Windows Phone devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings.
- You can now check or uncheck the Allow cookies box.