A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any web page. The utility of the cookie is that the web is able to remember your visit when you go back to that page. Although many people don’t know, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.
It’s not a virus, a Trojan, a worm, a spam, a spyware, or a pop-up window opener.
What information does a cookie store?
The 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, customization of content, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person but your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse with Internet Explorer and try to browse the same website with Firefox or Chrome you will see that the website does not realise that you are the same person because it is actually associating the browser, not the person.
What kind of cookies are there?
- Cookies techniques: These 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 are browsing, 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 of use, language, etc.
- Cookies advertising: They show advertising according to your navigation, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are your own cookies and those of others?
Own cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting and from third parties are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if I deactivate the cookies?
To help you understand the extent to which you can 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 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 stores: It will be impossible for you to make purchases online, they will have to be by phone or by visiting the physical store if you have one.
- It will not be possible to customize your geographic 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 cannot write on the blog, upload photos, post comments, rate or rate content. The web will also not be able to know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
- It will not be possible to show sectorized advertising, which will reduce the advertising income of the website.
- All social networks use cookies, if you disable them you will not be able to use any social network.
Can you remove the cookies?
Yes, not only delete, but also block, generally or specifically for a specific domain.
To remove the cookies of a website you must go to your browser settings and there you can search for the ones associated to the domain in question and proceed to their removal.
Browser configuration cookies for the most popular browsers
Here’s how to access a particular cookie from the browser Chrome. Note: these steps may vary depending on your browser version:
- Go to Settings or Preferences through 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 options.
- Go to Privacy, Content Settings
- Select All Cooches and Site Data
- A list will appear with all the cooches sorted by domain. To make it easier for you to find the cookies of a certain domain enter partially or completely the address in the field Search for cookies.
- After this filtering, one or more lines with the cookies of the requested website will appear on the screen. Now you only have to select it and press the X to proceed to its elimination.
To access the settings of cookies of the browser Internet Explorer follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser)
- Go to Tools, Internet Options
- Click on Privacy.
- Move the slider to the desired privacy level.
To access the settings of cookies of the browser Firefox follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser)
- Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
- In History choose Use custom history settings.
- Now you will see the option “Accept cookies”, you can activate or deactivate it according to 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.
- In this place you will see the option Block Cookies to set the type of blocking you want to do.
To access the cookies settings of the Safari for iOS browser follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser)
- Go to Settings, then Safari.
- Go to Privacy and Security, you will see the option Block Cookies to set the type of blocking you want to do.
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 check or uncheck the box.
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 check or uncheck the box.>/li>
To access the browser settings for cookies devices Windows Phone follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open the Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
- Now you can check or uncheck the box Allow cookies.