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 for the website to remember your visit when you browse that page again. Although many people may not 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 banking details, photos, your ID, or personal information, etc. The data they store is technical in nature, personal preferences, content customization, etc. The web server does not associate you as a person but rather associates 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 see that the website does not recognize you as the same person because it is actually associating with the browser, not the person.
What Types of Cookies Exist?
- Technical Cookies: These are the most basic and allow, among other things, to know whether a human or an automated application is browsing, whether an anonymous user or a registered one, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.
- Analytics Cookies: They collect information about the type of navigation you are performing, the sections you use the most, products consulted, usage time zone, language, etc.
- Advertising Cookies: They display advertising based on your navigation, your country of origin, language, etc.
What are First-Party and Third-Party Cookies?
First-party cookies are generated by the page you are visiting, and third-party cookies are generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.
What Happens If I Disable Cookies?
To understand the impact 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 content to your personal preferences, as is common in online stores.
- You will not be able to access the personal area of that website, such as My Account, My Profile, or My Orders.
- For online stores, you will be unable to make online purchases; they will have to be made by phone or by visiting the physical store if available.
- You will not be able to customize your geographical preferences such as time zone, currency, or language.
- The website will be unable to perform web analytics on visitors and web traffic, making it less competitive.
- You will not be able to write in the blog, upload photos, post comments, rate or review content. The website will also be unable to determine if you are a human or an automated application posting spam.
- Targeted advertising cannot be displayed, reducing advertising revenue for 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 can you delete them, but you can also block them, either generally or specifically for a particular domain. To delete cookies from a website, you should go to your browser's settings and look for those associated with the specific domain and proceed with their deletion.
Configuring Cookies for Popular Browsers
Here are instructions on how to access a specific cookie in the Chrome browser. Note: these steps may vary depending on the browser version:
- Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking the customization icon at the top right.
- You will see different sections; click on the Show advanced options option.
- Go to Privacy, Content settings.
- Select All cookies and site data.
- A list will appear with all the cookies sorted by domain. To make it easier to find cookies from a particular domain, enter the address, either partially or completely, in the Search cookies field.
- After applying this filter, one or more lines with the cookies of the requested website will appear on the screen. Now you just have to select it and press the X to proceed with its deletion.
To access the Internet Explorer browser's cookie settings, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Tools, Internet Options.
- Click on Privacy.
- Move the slider to adjust the desired privacy level.
To access the Firefox browser's cookie settings, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
- Click on Privacy.
- In History, choose Use custom settings for history.
- 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):
- Go to Preferences , then Privacy.
- Here you will see the Block cookies option to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.
To access the cookie settings of the Safari for iOS browser, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Go to Settings, then Safari.
- Go to Privacy and Security, you will see the Block cookies option to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.
To access the cookie settings of the browser for Android devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Run the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.
- Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the Accept cookies option to enable or disable the checkbox.
To access the cookie settings of the browser for Windows Phone devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):
- Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings.
- Now you can enable or disable the Allow cookies checkbox.