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 purpose of a cookie is to enable the website to remember your visit when you return to that page. Although many people are unaware, 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, trojan, worm, spam, spyware, or pop-up window.

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 card or personal information, etc. The data they store is technical in nature, personal preferences, content personalization, etc.

The web server does not associate you as a person, but rather your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse with Internet Explorer and try browsing 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 with the browser, not the person.

What Types of Cookies Exist?

• Technical cookies: These 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 are browsing, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.
• Analysis cookies: These collect information about the type of browsing you are doing, the sections you use most, products consulted, time slot of use, language, etc.
• Advertising cookies: These display advertising based on your browsing, your country of origin, language, etc.

What are First-Party and Third-Party Cookies?

First-party cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting, and third-party cookies are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, 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 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 usually 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 online purchases; they will have to be by telephone or by visiting the physical store if one is available.
• It will not be possible to personalize your geographical preferences such as time zone, currency, or language.
• The website will not be able to perform web analytics on visitors and traffic to the website, which will make it difficult for the website to be competitive.
• You will not be able to write on the blog, upload photos, post comments, rate or score content. The website will also not be able to know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
• Sectorized advertising cannot 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 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 delete them.

Cookie Settings for the most Popular Browsers

Below we show you how to access a specific cookie in 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 customization icon that appears at the top right.
2. You will see different sections, click the Show advanced options option.
3. Go to Privacy, Content settings.
4. Select All cookies and site data.
5. A list will appear with all the cookies sorted by domain. To make it easier to find the cookies of a specific domain, enter part or all of the address in the Search cookies field.
6. After performing this filter, one or more lines with the cookies of the requested website will appear on the screen. Now you just have to select it and press the X to proceed with its deletion.

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 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 (they may vary depending on the browser version):

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

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

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

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

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

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 the Menu key, then Settings.
2. Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the Accept cookies option so you can activate or deactivate the box.

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 Settings
2. Now you can activate or deactivate the Allow cookies box.