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 the cookie is to allow the website to remember your visit when you browse that page again. Although many people are unaware of it, cookies have been in use for 20 years, since the first browsers appeared for the World Wide Web.

WHAT IS NOT A COOKIE?

It is not a virus, a trojan, a worm, spam, spyware, and it does not open pop-up windows.

WHAT INFORMATION DO COOKIES STORE?

Cookies do not usually store sensitive information about you, such as credit cards or bank details, photographs, your ID number or personal information, etc. The data they store is technical in nature, personal preferences, content personalisation, 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 realise you are the same person, because it is actually associating the browser, not the person.

WHAT TYPES OF COOKIES ARE THERE?

Technical cookies: These are the most basic and allow, among other things, knowing when a human or an automated application is browsing, when an anonymous user and a registered one are browsing, and basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.

Analytics cookies: These collect information about the type of browsing you are doing, the sections you use most, products viewed, time 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, Google, etc.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DISABLE COOKIES?

To help you understand the impact that disabling cookies can have, here are some examples:

You will not be able to share content from this website on Facebook, or any other social network.

The website will not be able to adapt content to your personal preferences, as usually happens in online shops.

You will not be able to access the personal area of this website, such as my account, my profile or my orders.

Online shops: It will be impossible for you to make online purchases; you will have to do so by phone or by visiting the physical shop if one is available.

It will not be possible to customise your geographic preferences such as time zone, currency or language.

The website will not be able to carry out web analytics on visitors and traffic, which will make it harder for the website to remain competitive.

You will not be able to write on the blog, upload photos, post comments, or rate content. The website will also not be able to tell whether you are a human or an automated application posting spam.

Targeted advertising will not be shown, 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, they can also be blocked, either generally or specifically for a given domain.

To delete cookies from a website, go to your browser settings, where 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:

Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu, or click on the customisation icon that appears in the top right corner.

You will see different sections; click on the Show advanced settings option.

Go to Privacy, Content settings.

Select All cookies and site data.

A list will appear with all cookies sorted by domain.

To help you find the cookies for a particular domain, enter the address partially or in full in the Search cookies field.

After applying this filter, one or more lines with the cookies for the requested site will appear on the screen. Now simply select it and press the X to delete it.

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

Go to Tools, Internet Options.

Click on Privacy.

Move the slider to adjust the privacy level you want.

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

Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.

Click on Privacy.

Under History, choose Use custom settings for history.

You will now see the Accept cookies option; you can enable or disable it according to your preferences.

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

Go to Preferences, then Privacy.

Here you will see the Block cookies option to adjust the type of blocking you want to apply.

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

Go to Settings, then Safari.

Go to Privacy & Security; you will see the Block cookies option to adjust the type of blocking you want to apply.

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

Open the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.

Go to Security & Privacy; you will see the Accept cookies option to enable or disable the checkbox.

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

Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings.

You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies checkbox.