What is a cookie?

A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any website. The usefulness of the cookie is that the website will be able to remember your visit when you surf that page again. Although many people do not know the 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, 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 or personal information, etc. The data they store are of a technical nature, personal preferences, content customization, etc. The web server does not associate you as a person but 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 does not realize that you are the same person because you are actually associating the browser, not the person.

What kind of cookies exist?

• Technical cookies: They are the most basic and allow, among other things, to know when a human or an automated application is browsing, when an anonymous user and a registered user, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.
• Analysis cookies: They collect information about the type of navigation you are making, the sections you use most, products consulted, time slot, language, etc.
• Advertising cookies: Display advertising based on your navigation, country of origin, language, etc.

What are own and third-party cookies?

Own cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting and those 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 may not share content from that website 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 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 shops: It will be impossible to make purchases online, 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 slot, 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 write on the blog, you will not be able to upload photos, post comments, rate or rate content. The web will also be unable to tell if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
• You will not be able to display sectored 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 networks.

Can cookies be deleted?

Yes. Not only delete, but also block, generally or particularly 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 its deletion.

Setting cookies for the most popular browsers

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

To access Internet Explorer browser cookie settings follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):

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

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

1. Go to Options or Preferences according to your operating system.
2. Please click on Privacy.
3. Under History choose Use custom settings for history.
4. You will now see the Accept cookies option, you can turn it on or off according to your preferences.

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

1. Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
2. In this place you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.

To access the cookie settings of the Safari browser for iOS follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):

1. Go to Settings, then Safari.
2. Go to Privacy and Security, you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.

To access the browser’s cookie settings for Android devices follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

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

To access the browser cookie settings for Windows Phone devices follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

1. Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
2. You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies check box.

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