What cookie is?

A cookie is a harmless text file which is stored in your browser when you visit almost any web page. Cookies are used so that the website can remember your visit when you return to the page. Although many people do not know it, cookies have been in use for 20 years, since the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.

What a cookie is not?

It is not a virus, a Trojan, a worm, spam or spyware, and it does not open pop-up windows.

What kind of information does a cookie store?

Cookies do not generally store sensitive information about you, such as credit card or bank account information, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. The data that they store are technical data, personal preferences, content personalization, etc.

The web server does not associate with you as a person, but rather with 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 realize that you are the same person because it is actually associating the browser, not the person.

What type of cookies exist?

  • Technical Cookies: These are the most basic ones and allow to know, among other things, whether a website is being visited by a human or an automated application, by an anonymous or a registered user, this is one of the basic tasks for running a dynamic website.
  • Analysis cookies: these collect information about surfing behavior, the areas you visit most frequently, the products you request, time periods, language, etc.
  • Advertising cookies: these display the advertising based on your surfing behavior, country of origin, language, etc.

What is a first-party and a third-party cookie ?

First-party cookies are set by the website you are visiting and third-party cookies are set by external providers or services like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.

What happens if I disable cookies ?

Here are some examples for you to better understand the scope that disabling cookies may have:

  • You won’t be able to share the content of this website on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
  • The website will not adapt the content to your personal preferences, as often happens in online shops.
  • You won’t be able to access the personal area of the website, such as My account, or My Profile or My Orders.
  • Online shops: You won’t be able to make purchases online; you’ll have to make them over the phone or by visiting a local store, if available.
  • It will not be possible to customize your geographic preferences as time zone, currency or language.
  • The website will not be able to perform web analytics about visitors and web traffic, which would affect the website’s competitiveness.
  • You won’t be able to write on blogs, upload photos, post comments, like or rate content. The website won’t be able to know whether you are a human or an automated application posting spam.
  • No targeted advertising will be displayed, reducing 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 I delete cookies?

Yes. Not only can you delete, but also block them, generally or for a specific domain.

In order to delete the cookies of a website, go to your browser settings where you can find the cookies associated with the domain in question and delete them.

Below we explain how to access a specific cookie of the Chrome browser. Note: these steps may vary depending on the browser version:

  1. Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking the customisation icon that appears in the top right.
  2. You will see different sections, click Show Advanced Settings.
  3. Go to Privacy, Content settings.
  4. Select All cookies and site data.
  5. A list will appear with all cookies ordered by domain. To make it easier to find the cookies of a specific domain, partially or fully enter the address in the Search cookies field.
  6. After filtering, one or more lines with the cookies of the website requested will appear on the screen. Now you just have to select it and press X to delete them.

In order to access the cookie settings of the Internet Explorer browser, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Go to Tools, Internet Options.
  2. Click Privacy.
  3. Move the slider to adjust the level of privacy you want.

In order to access the cookie settings of the Firefox browser follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
  2. Click Privacy.
  3. In History choose Use custom settings for history.
  4. Now you will see the Accept cookies option, you can turn them on or off according to your preferences.

In order to access the cookie settings of the Safari browser for OSX browser follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
  2. Here you can see the Block cookies option to adjust the type of block you want.

In order to access the cookie settings of the Safari browser for iOS browser, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Go to Settings, then Safari.
  2. Go to Privacy and Security, go to the Block cookies option to adjust the type of block you want.

In order to access the cookie settings of the browser for Android devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Run the browser and press Menu key, then Settings.
  2. Go to Security and Privacy, go to the Accept cookies option to check or uncheck the box.

In order to access the cookie settings of the browser for Windows Phone devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Configuration.
  2. Now you can check or uncheck the Allow cookies box.