WHAT IS A COOKIE?

A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any website. Cookies help the web to register and remember your visit when you return to the same page. Most people are unaware that cookies have been in use for 20 years, when the first browsers for World Wide Web appeared.

WHAT A COOKIE IS NOT?

It is not a virus or a Trojan horse, or a worm, or spam or spyware, nor a pop-up window opener.

WHAT INFORMATION IS STORED BY A COOKIE?

Cookies do not usually store personal information about you, such as credit cards or bank account information, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. Data stored are technical, personal preferences, content personalization, etc. The web server does not associate with you as a person but instead with your web browser. In fact, if you regularly browse with Internet Explorer and try to browse the same web with Firefox or Chrome you will notice that the web does not realize that you are the same person because it is actually associated to the browser, not the person.

WHAT KIND OF COOKIES ARE THERE?

• Technical Cookies: They are the most basic. Among other things, they are
  used to ascertain whether a human or an automated application is
  browsing, when an anonymous user or a registered one is browsing and
  basic tasks for running any dynamic web.

•  Analysis  Cookies: Collect information on the type of browsing being
  carried out, the sections most used, products viewed, period of time in
  use, language, etc.

• Advertising cookies: Show advertising based on your browsing, country of
  origin, language, etc.

WHAT ARE FIRST AND THIRD PARTY COOKIES?

First party cookies are those generated by the page you’re visiting and third party ones
are generated by services or external providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DISABLE COOKIES?

To understand the scope that disabling cookies produces here are some examples:

• You cannot share any content from 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.
• You cannot access the personal area of this web, such as My account, or
  My profile or My orders.
• Online stores: It will be impossible to make purchases online, purchases
  must be made by telephone or visiting the store if there is one.
• It will not be possible to customize your geographic preferences such as
  time zones, currency or language.
• The website cannot perform web analytics about visitors and web traffic,
  making it difficult for the web to be competitive.
• You cannot write on the blog, or upload photos, post comments, evaluate
  or rate content. The web may not know whether you are a human or an
  automated application that publishes spam.
• Sectored advertising will not be able to be shown, which will reduce the
  website’s advertising income.
• All social networks use cookies; if you deactivate them you will not be able
  to use any social network.

   

CAN I DELETE COOKIES?

Yes. Not only can they be deleted, but also blocked, generally or specifically for a specific domain.

To delete website cookies you have to go to your browser’s settings and there you can search for those associated with the domain in question and eliminate them.

CONFIGURING COOKIES FOR THE MOST POPULAR BROWSERS

Here’s how to access a particular cookie from the Chrome browser. N.B.: These steps
may vary depending on the browser version:

1. Go to Settings or Preferences on the File menu or by clicking the
   personalization icon appearing in the top right.
2.  You’ll see different sections, click on Show Advanced Options.
3.  Go to Privacy, Content settings.
4. Select All cookies and site data.
5.  A list will appear with all of the cookies ordered by domain. To make it
   easier to find the cookies of a certain domain, enter the partial or
   complete address in the Search cookies field.
6.  After making this filter the screen will show one or several lines with the
   cookies of the requested website. Now just select it and click X to delete it.

To access the cookies settings in Internet Explorer do as follows (which may differ between versions of the browser):

1. Go to Tools, Internet Options.
2.  Click on Privacy.
3.  Slide the button to adjust the privacy level you require.

To access the cookies settings in Firefox do as follows (which may differ between
versions of the browser):

1.  Go to Options or Preferences, depending on your operating system.
2.  Click on Privacy.
3. In History choose Use customized set-up for history.
4. You will now see the option to Accept cookies, you can activate or
   deactivate it according to your preferences.

To access the cookies settings in Safari for OSX do as follows (which may differ
between versions of the browser):

1. Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
2.  Here you will see the Block cookies option to allow you to adjust the type
   of blocking you want to make.

To access the cookies settings in Safari for OSX do as follows (which may differ between versions of the browser):

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

To access the cookies settings for Android devices do as follows (which may differ between versions of the browser):

1.  Run the browser and click on Menu, then Settings.
2.  Go to Security and Privacy, where you will see the Accept Cookies option to
   check or uncheck the box.

To access the cookies settings for Windows Phone devices do as follows (which may differ between versions of the browser):

1.  Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
2.  Now you can check or uncheck the Allow cookies box.