What is a cookie?

A cookie is a harmless text file stored in your browser when you visit almost any website. The cookie allows the web to remember you visit when you come back or keep browsing the same page. Cookies have been used since more than 20 years ago, when first web browsers got available.

What is NOT a cookie?

A cookie is not a virus, nor a trojan, nor a worm, nor spam, nor spyware, nor pop-up launcher.

What information is stored in a cookie?

Cookies don’t usually store sensitive personal information, like credit cards or bank data, photographies, Id numbers or personal information. Stored data use to be technical dara, personal preferences, contents customization, etc.

Web server does not take data from you, but from your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse with Internet Explorer and switch to another browser like Chrome or Firefox browsing the same web, the server will not identify you as the same person.

What types of cookies are there?

Technical cookies: the most basic ones, needed to know if the user is human or a robot, anonymous or logged in, and to perform basic web maintenance tasks.

Analitical cookies: to gather browsing informatio, sections usage statistics, hours with low usage, language, etc.

Advertising cookies: to show advertising based on your browsing, country, language, etc.

What are proprietary cookies and third party cookies?

Proprietary cookies are those generated by the web you are visiting, and third-party ones are generated by third-party services or providers like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.

What if I disable cookies?

These are some of the possible consequences of disabling cookies:

You won’t be able to share this web contents in Facebook, Twitter or any social network.

The web will not be able to adapt the contents to your personal preference, like in online shopping webs.

You will not be able to login and access personal areas like My account, my profile or my orders.

You won’t be able to buy online.

You won’t be able to personalize geographical preferences like time zone, currency or language.

The web will not be able to store analytics about visitors and traffic, reducing web competitiveness.

You won’t be able to write in blogs, upload photos, publish comments, evaluate contents… The web will not be able to know if you are a human or a spammer robot.

Sectorial advertisements will not be possible, reducing web’s advertising income.

All social networks use cookies, if you disable them you won’t be able to use them.

Can cookies be removed?

Yes, you can remove them or block them, globally or just for a particular domain.

You can remove the cookies of a website from your browser’s settings-

Cookies settings for most popular browsers:

If you are using Chrome, these are the steps to access a cookie (these steps can change depending on browser version):

Go to Settings or Preferences in the File menu or clicking the top right customization icon.

You’ll see several sections. Click Show advanced settings.

Go to Privacy, contents settings.

Choose All cookies and sites data.

You will see a list with all cookies, sorted by domain. Input the domain name in Search cookies to find the cookies you look for.

You will see the cookies of the selected domain. Select them and click X to remove them.

If you are using Internet Explorer, these are the steps to access a cookie (these steps can change depending on browser version):

Go to tools, Internet options

Click Privacy.

Move the slider to select your privacy level.

If you are using Firefox, these are the steps to access a cookie (these steps can change depending on browser version):

Go to Settings or Preferences.

Click Privacy.

In History, choose custom history settings.

You’ll see Accept cookies option. You can enable it or disable it.

If you are using OSX Safari, these are the steps to access a cookie (these steps can change depending on browser version):

Go to Settings, then Privacy.

You’ll see Block cookies option.

If you are using iOS Safari, these are the steps to access a cookie (these steps can change depending on browser version):

Go to Settings, then Safari.

Go to Privacy and Security. You will find Block cookies option.

If you are using Android, these are the steps to access a cookie (these steps can change depending on browser version):

Run the browser and click Menu, and then Settings.

Go to Security and Privacy, you will see Accept cookies option for enablig or disabling them.

If you are using Windows Phone, these are the steps to access a cookie (these steps can change depending on browser version):

Open Internet Explorer, Click More, and then Settings.

Activate or deactivate Allow cookies.