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 browse that page. Although many people do not know it, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.
What is a cookie NOT?
It is not a virus, Trojan, worm, spam, spyware, or pop-up window opener.
What information does a cookie?
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 of a technical nature, personal preferences, content personalization, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person but your web browser. In fact, if you browse regularly with Internet Explorer and try to browse the same website with Firefox or Chrome you will see that the web does not 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 or an automated application is browsing, when an anonymous user and a registered user browses, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.
- Cookies of analysis: They collect information about the type of navigation you are doing, the sections you use the most, products consulted, time slot of use, language, etc.
- Cookies advertising: They show advertising based on your browsing, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are own and third-party cookies?
The own cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting and the of third parties are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What happens if I disable cookies?
To understand the scope of disabling 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, as by example My account, o <Profile the Mis requests.
- Online stores: It will be impossible for you 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 geographic preferences such as time zone, currency or language.
- The website will not be able to perform web analytics on visitors and traffic on the web, which will make it difficult for the website to be competitive.
- You will not be able to write on the blog, you will not be able to upload photos, post comments, rate or rate content. The website will also not be able to know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
- will not be able to show sectorized advertising, which will reduce the advertising revenue of the web.
- 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 delete, but also block, in a general or particular way for a specific domain.
To delete cookies from a website you must go to your browser settings and there you can search for those associated with the domain in question and proceed to their elimination.
Cookie settings for the most popular browsers
Here’s how to access a specific cookie browser Chrome. Note: These steps may vary depending on your browser version:
- Go to Settings or Preferences using the File menu or by clicking the personalization icon at the top right.
- You will see different sections, click the option Show advanced options.
- Go to Privacy, Content Settings.
- Select Todas las cookies y los datos de sitios.
- A list will appear with all cookies sorted by domain. To make it easier for you to find the cookies for a particular domain, enter part or all of the address in the Search for cookies.</li field>
- After performing this filter, one or more lines will appear on the screen with the cookies of the requested website. Now you just have to select it and press the X to proceed to its deletion.
To access the cookies settings of the Internet Explorer browser follow these steps (may vary depending on browser version):
- Go to Tools, Internet Options
- Click on Privacy.
- Move the slider to set the desired privacy level.
To access the cookies settings of the Firefox browser settings, follow these steps (may vary depending on browser version):
- Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
- Click on Privacy.
- Under History choose Use a custom configuration for history.
- You will now 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 (may vary depending on browser version):
- Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- In this place you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.
To access the cookies settings of the Safari for iOS browser settings, follow these steps (may vary depending on 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 make.
To access the cookies settings of the browser for Android devices, follow these steps (may vary depending on browser version):
- Launch the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.
- Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the option Accept cookies to enable or uncheck the box.
To access the cookies settings of your browser for Windows Phone devices follow these steps (may vary depending on browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, luego Más, luego Configuración
- You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies.