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 navigate back to that page. 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, a Trojan, a worm, spam, spyware, or pop-up windows.

WHAT INFORMATION DOES A COOKIE STORE?

Cookies usually do not store sensitive information about you, such as credit cards or banking data, photos, 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 rather 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 realize that you are 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 when a human is browsing or an automated application, when an anonymous user and a registered user are browsing, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.
• Analysis Cookies: Collect information about the type of navigation being carried out, the sections most used, products consulted, usage time zone, language, etc.
• Advertising Cookies: Display advertisements based on your navigation, 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 often 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 be unable to make online purchases, they will have to be done 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 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 in the blog, upload photos, post comments, rate or rate content. The website will also not be able to tell if you are a human or an automated application that posts spam.
• Targeted advertising cannot be displayed, reducing 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 can they be deleted, but also blocked, in general or specifically for a specific domain.

To delete cookies from a website, go to your browser settings and there you can search for those associated with the relevant domain and proceed to delete them.

COOKIE SETTINGS FOR THE MOST POPULAR BROWSERS

Here's 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 through the File menu or by clicking the customization icon that appears in the upper right corner.
• 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 for you to find the cookies for a particular domain, enter the address 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 cookie settings of the Internet Explorer browser, 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 cookie settings of the Firefox browser, 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 activate or deactivate it according to your preferences.

To access the cookie settings of the Safari browser for OSX, 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 browser for iOS, 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 go to Settings.
• Go to Security and Privacy; you will see the Accept cookies option to activate or deactivate 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 activate or deactivate the Allow cookies checkbox.