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 a cookie is to allow the website to remember your visit when you return to browse that page again. Although many people are not aware of it, cookies have been used for more than 20 years, since the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.
What is NOT a cookie?
It is not a virus, nor a trojan, nor a worm, nor spam, nor spyware, nor does it open pop-up windows.
What information does a cookie store?
Cookies do not usually store sensitive information about you, such as credit card or bank details, photographs, your ID number or personal information, etc. The data they store is technical in nature, such as personal preferences, content customization, and similar information.
The web server does not associate you as a person, but rather with your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse with Internet Explorer and try to visit the same website using Firefox or Chrome, you will see that the website does not recognize you as the same person because it is actually associating the information with the browser, not the person.
What types of cookies exist?
- Technical cookies: These are the most basic and allow, among other things, to determine whether a human or an automated application is browsing, whether a user is anonymous or registered—basic tasks required for the proper functioning of any dynamic website.
- Analytics cookies: These collect information about the type of browsing you are doing, the sections you use the most, products viewed, time of use, language, etc.
- Advertising cookies: These display advertising based on your browsing behavior, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are first-party and third-party cookies?
First-party cookies are those generated by the website you are visiting, while third-party cookies are generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, X (Twitter), Google, etc.
What happens if I disable cookies?
To help you understand the scope of disabling cookies, here are some examples:
- You will not be able to share content from this website on Facebook, X (Twitter), or any other social network.
- The website will not be able to adapt content to your personal preferences, as is common in online stores.
- You will not be able to access the personal area of the website, such as My account, My profile, or My orders.
- Online stores: It will be impossible to make purchases online; you will have to do so by phone or by visiting the physical store if one is available.
- 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 website traffic, which will make it harder for the website to remain competitive.
- You will not be able to write in the blog, upload photos, publish comments, rate or review content. The website will also not be able to determine whether you are a human or an automated application posting spam.
- Targeted advertising will not be displayed, 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 can they be deleted, but they can also be blocked, either generally or specifically for a particular domain.
To delete cookies from a website, you must go to your browser settings. There you can search for those associated with the specific domain and proceed to 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 from the File menu, or by clicking the customization icon located at the top right.
- You will see several sections; click the option Show advanced settings.
- Go to Privacy, Content settings.
- Select All cookies and site data.
- A list will appear with all cookies organized by domain. To make it easier to find cookies from a specific domain, enter the address partially or completely in the Search cookies field.
- After applying this filter, one or more lines with cookies from the requested website will appear on the screen. Now simply select it and click the X to delete it.
- Go to Tools, Internet Options
- Click on Privacy.
- Move the slider to adjust the desired level of privacy.
- Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
- Click on Privacy.
- In History choose Use custom settings for history.
- You will now see the option Accept cookies, which you can enable or disable according to your preferences.
- Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- Here you will see the option Block cookies where you can adjust the type of blocking you want to apply.
- Go to Settings, then Safari.
- Go to Privacy & Security, where you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking you want to apply.
- Open the browser and press the Menu button, then Settings.
- Go to Security & Privacy, where you will see the option Accept cookies to enable or disable the checkbox.
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
- You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies checkbox.