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 not aware of it, cookies have been in use for 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, and it does not open pop-up windows.

What information does a cookie 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 of a technical 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 exist?

  • 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 functioning of any dynamic website.
  • Analytics cookies: They collect information about the type of browsing you are doing, the sections you use most, products viewed, time of use, language, etc.
  • Advertising cookies: They 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 ones are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.

What happens if I disable cookies?

So that you understand the scope that disabling cookies may have, we show you a few 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 content to your personal preferences, as usually happens in online shops.
  • You will not be able to access the personal area of that website, such as My account, or My profile or My orders.
  • Online shops: It will be impossible for you to make online purchases; they will have to be made by telephone.
  • It will not be possible to personalise your geographical 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 be competitive.
  • You will not be able to write on the blog, upload photos, publish comments, rate or score content. Nor will the website be able to tell whether you are a human or an automated application publishing spam.
  • It will not be possible to display targeted advertising, 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 deleted, but also blocked, either generally or specifically for a particular domain.

To delete the cookies of a website you must go to your browser’s settings and there you can look for those associated with the domain in question and proceed to delete them.

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 customisation icon that appears at the top right.
  2. You will see different sections; click the Show advanced settings 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 particular domain, enter the address partially or fully in the Search cookies field.
  6. After applying this filter, one or several lines with the cookies of the requested website will appear on screen. Now you just have to select it and press the X to delete it.

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 set 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. Under History choose Use custom settings for history.
  4. Now you will see the Accept cookies option; you can enable or disable 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. Here you will see the Block cookies option so you can set the type of blocking you wish to apply.

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 and Security; you will see the Block cookies option so you can set the type of blocking you wish to apply.

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

  1. Launch 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 tick or untick 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 tick or untick the Allow cookies box.