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 utility of the cookie is that the web is able to remember your visit when you browse that page again. Although many people don’t know 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, nor does it open pop-up windows.
What information does a cookie store?
Cookies usually do not store sensitive information about you, such as credit cards or bank details, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. The data they store is of a technical nature, personal preferences, content customization, etc.
The web server does not associate you as a person but with your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse with Internet Explorer and try to browse 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 the browser, not the person.
What types of cookies are there?
Technical cookies: They 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 web.
Analysis cookies: They collect information about the type of navigation you are doing, the sections you use the most, products consulted, time zone of use, language, etc.
Advertising cookies: They display advertising based on your browsing, your country of origin, language, etc.
Personalization cookies: These are those that allow the user to access the service with some general characteristics predefined based on a series of criteria in the user’s terminal, such as the language or the type of browser through which the service is connected.
What are own cookies and third-party cookies?
Own 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 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: You will not be able to make online purchases, they will have to be by phone or by visiting the physical store if it has one.
- It will not be possible to customize your geographic preferences such as time zone, currency, or language.
- The website will not be able to perform web analytics on visitors and traffic on the web, making it difficult for the website to be competitive.
- You will not be able to write on the blog, you will not be able to upload photos, post comments, rate or rate content. The website will also not know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
- It will not be possible to display sectorized advertising, which will reduce the advertising revenue of the website.
- 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 general or in particular for a specific domain.
You can then access the settings of the most common web browsers to accept, install, or disable cookies:
