What is a cookie?
A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any website. Cookies are useful in that websites are able to remember your visit when you return to browse the page again. Many people do not know, however, that cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web.
What is NOT a cookie?
It is not a virus or a Trojan or a worm, nor spam, nor spyware, nor pop-up windows.
What information is stored a cookie
Cookies usually don’t store sensitive information about you, such as credit cards or bank account information, photos, your ID or personal information, etc. The data stored is technical, personal preferences, content personalization, etc.
Web servers do not associate with you personally, but with your web browser. In fact, if you regularly browse with Internet Explorer and try to browse the same website with Firefox or Chrome you will notice that the website does not realize that you are the same person, and it actually partners with the browser, not the person.
What kinds of cookies are there
- Technical Cookies: These are the most basic and verify, among other things, when a human is browsing versus an automated application, when an anonymous or a registered user is browsing, basic tasks for running any dynamic web.
- Analysis Cookies: collect information regarding the type of browsing being done, more sections used, reference numbers, times of usage, language, etc.
- Advertising Cookies: show advertising based on your browsing, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are first-party cookies and third-party cookies
First-party cookies are generated by the page you are visiting and the third-parties are generated by internal or external providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What if I deactivate cookies
In order to understand the extent of cookies, you may have to disable cookies. Here are some examples:
- Cannot share the content of this site on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
- The website will not adapt content to your personal preferences, as often happens in online stores.
- Staff cannot access web areas, such as My account or My profile or My orders .
- Online Stores: It will be impossible to make purchases online, these will have to be done over the phone or by going to the physical store, if you have one.
- Customizing your geographic preferences such as time zone, currency or language is not possible.
- The website will be unable to analyze visitors or web traffic, making it difficult to be competitive anywhere.
- You will be unable to write on blogs, upload photos, post comments, or rate content. The webpage may not know whether you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam .
- Unable to display sectioned advertising, which will reduce website income.
- All social networks use cookies; if they are disabled you cannot use any social network.
Can I remove cookies
Yes. Not only can you eliminate them, but you can also block them, either generally or specifically for a certain domain.
To remove a website’s cookies, go to your browser settings where you will find the associated domain in question; proceed with removal.
Cookies settings for more popular browsers
Here’s how to access Chrome’s cookies. Note: These steps may vary depending on which version of the browser you are using:
- Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking the icon customization shown above on the right.
- You will see different sections, click the option. Show advanced options.
- Go to Privacy Content Settings.
- Select All cookies and data sites.
- A list of all the cookies will appear sorted by domain. To make it easier to find the cookies of a given domain, partially or fully enter the address in the Cookies Search.
- After making this onscreen filter, one or more lines with cookies will appear, for the requested website. Now just select it and press X to proceed with removal.
To access cookies configuration for Internet Explorer, follow these steps (may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Tools, Internet Options
- Click Privacy.
- Move the slider to adjust the level of privacy you want.
To access cookies configuration for Firefox, follow these steps (may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Options or Preferences for your operating system.
- Click Privacy.
- History, choose Use custom settings for history.
- The Accept cookies option can be enabled or disabled, as desired.
To access cookies configuration for Safari for OSX, follow these steps (may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
- Go to Block cookies to adjust the type of lock to perform.
To access cookies configuration cookies Safari for iOS, follow these steps (may vary depending on your browser version):
- Go to Settings, then Safari .
- Go to Privacy and Security, see the Block cookies to adjust the type of lock to perform.
Option
To access cookies configuration for Android devices, follow these steps (may vary depending on your browser version):
- Run the browser and press the Menu, then Settings key.
- Go to Security and Privacy, see the Accept cookies to check or uncheck this option.
To access cookies configuration for Windows Phone devices follow these steps (may vary depending on your browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
- You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies box.