What is a cookie

A cookie is a small harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any web page. It is useful in that the website is able to remember your visit when you return to browse that page. Although not many people are aware of it, cookies have been in use for 20 years, dating back to the time the first search engines appeared on the World Wide Web.

What a cookie is not

They are not a virus, nor a Trojan, a worm, spam, spyware, or a pop-up window.

What information do cookies store?

Cookies do not usually store sensitive information about you, such as credit card or bank details, photographs, your National Identity Number or personal information. The data they do store is of a technical nature, your personal preferences, customization of content, etc.

The web server does not make an association with you as a person, rather with your web browser. In fact, if you normally use Internet Explorer and then navigate the same web site with Firefox or Chrome, you will see that it is not aware that you are the same person, because in reality the association is made with the web browser and not the person.

What kind of cookies exist

  • Technical cookies: these are the most basic cookies and they allow web sites to know, among other things, whether it is a human or an automated application navigating, and when an anonymous or registered user are navigating. These are basic tasks for the functioning of any dynamic web site.
  • Analytical cookies: gather information about the type of navigation being carried out, the most used sections, products consulted, time periods of use, language, etc.
  • Publicity cookies: Display publicity in function of navigation, country of origin, language, etc.

Which are our own cookies and wich belong to third-parties

In-house cookies are those generated by the web 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 deactivate cookies

So that you can understand the impact that deactivating cookies can have, we will show you some examples:

  • You won’t be able to share content from this website on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
  • The web site won’t be able to adapt its contents to match your personal preferences, as usually happens with on-line shops.
  • You won’t be able to access the web site’s personal area, such as for example My account, My profile or My orders.
  • On-line shops. It will be impossible for you to make purchases on-line; they will have to be done by telephone, or by visiting the bricks and mortar shop if you have one in your area.
  • It won’t be possible to personalised your geographic preferences such as time zone, currency or language.
  • The web site won’t be able to carry out web analytics on visits and traffic to the web site, which will complicate the web site’s ability to be competitive.
  • You won’t be able to write on blogs, you won’t be able to post photos, publish comments, appraise or rate content. The web site won’t be able to tell if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
  • The website will not be able to display sector specific publicity, which will reduce its advertising revenue.
  • All social networks use cookies; if you deactivate them you won’t be able to use any social network.

I it possible to eliminate cookies?

Yes. It is possible to not only eliminate them, but also to block them, in a general or specific manner for a specific domain.

Below are the instructions to access a Chrome browser cookie. Please note: these steps may vary depending on the browser:

  1. Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking on the personalization icon that appears at the top right of the screen.
  2. You will see different sections, click on the option Show advanced options.
  3. Go to Privacy, Content Settings.
  4. Select All cookies and the web site data.
  5. A list with all the cookies, ordered by domain will appear. To make it easier for you to find the cookies of a specific domain, enter the partial or complete address in the Search cookies field.
  6. After carrying out this filter, one or more lines with the cookies from the requested website will appear on the screen. Now you just have to select them and click on X to proceed with the elimination.

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

  1. Go to Tools, Internet Options
  2. Click on Privacy.
  3. Move the cursor to set the privacy level you want.

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

  1. Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
  2. Click on Privacy.
  3. In Browser History, choose Use a customised setting for the history.
  4. Now you will see the Accept cookies option, you can activate or deactivate it according to your preferences.

To access the cookies configuration of the Safari browser for OSX follow these steps (steps may vary depending on the version of the browser):

  1. Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
  2. You will see the option Block cookies so that you can adjust the type of block you want.

To access the cookies configuration of the Safari browser for ¡OS follow these steps (steps may vary depending on the version of the browser):

  1. Go to Settings, then Safari.
  2. Go to Privacy and Security, you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking you want.

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

  1. Run the browser and click on the Menu key, then Settings.
  2. Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the option Accept cookies to activate or deactivate the option.

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

  1. Open Internet Explorer, then More. Then Settings
  2. You can now activate or deactivate the Allow cookies box.