What is a cookie?

A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored on your browser when you visit almost any web page. The usefulness of the cookie is that the website is able to remember your visit next time you browse that page. Although many people do not know about cookies, they have been in use for 20 years, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.

What is NOT a cookie?

It is not a virus, nor is it a Trojan, a worm, spam, spyware, nor does it open pop-up windows.

What information does a cookie store ?

Cookies do not usually store sensitive information about you, such as credit cards or bank details, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. The data they keep are of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalization of contents, etc.

The web server does not associate you as a person to your web browser. In fact, if you regularly browse with Internet Explorer and try to browse the same web page with Firefox or Chrome, you will see that the web page does not realise that you are the same person because it is actually associating with the browser, not the person.

What kind of cookies are there?

• Technical cookies : These are the most basic and they make it possible, among other things, to know when a human or an automated application is browsing, to know when an anonymous user and a registered user are browsing and to conduct basic tasks for running any dynamic website.
• Analysis cookies: These collect information about the type of browsing that is being performed, the sections that are most used, products consulted, time zone, language, etc.
• Advertising cookies: These display advertising based on your browsing, your country of origin, language, etc.

What are own cookies and third party cookies?

Own cookies are those generated by the website 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?

In order to understand the scope of the effect that disabling cookies may have, we provide some examples:

• You cannot share content from this web page on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
• The website will not adapt the content to your personal preferences, as often happens 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.
• Online stores: It will be impossible to make online purchases, you will have to call or physically visit the store if available.
• It will not be possible to customise your geographic preferences such as time zone, currency or language.
• The website will not be able to perform web analytics about visitors and web traffic, making it difficult for the web page to be competitive.
• You will not be able to write on the blog, you cannot upload photos, post comments, evaluate or rate content. The website may not know whether you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
• No targeted advertising can be shown, which will reduce the advertising revenues of the web page.
• All social networks use cookies. If they are disabled, you cannot use any social network.

Can cookies be deleted?

Yes. Not only can you delete them, you can also block them, in general or particular to a specific domain.

To remove cookies from a website, you must go to your browser settings and there you can find those associated to the domain in question and proceed to delete them.

Setting up cookies for the most popular browsers

Here's how to access a specific cookie from the Chrome browser. Please note: these steps may vary depending on the version of the browser:

1. Go to Settings or Preferences using the File menu or by clicking on the customisation icon that appears in the upper right corner.
2. You will see different sections, click Show advanced options.
3. Got to Privacy, Content settings.
4. Select all cookies and the site data.
5. A list with all the cookies sorted by domain will appear. To make it easier for you to find the cookies for a certain domain, enter the address in the Search for Cookies field, in whole or in part.
6. After applying this filter, one or more lines with the cookies from the requested web page will appear on the screen. Now you just have to select it and press X to delete it.

To manage cookie settings in Internet Explorer, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):

1. Go to Tools, Internet Options
2. Click on Privacy.
3. Move the slider to adjust the level of privacy you want.

To manage cookie settings in Firefox, follow these steps (they 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 History select Use custom settings for history.
4. You will now see the Accept cookies option, you can activate or deactivate it according to your preferences.

To manage cookie settings in Safari for OSX, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):

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

To manage cookie settings in Safari for OSX, follow these steps (they 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 Block Cookies option to adjust the type of blocking you want to perform.

To manage cookie settings in browsers for Android devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):

1. Run the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.
2. Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the Accept cookies option to enable or disable the checkbox.

To manage cookie settings in browsers for Windows Phone devices, follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):

1. Open Internet Explorer, then More, then Settings
2. You can now enable or disable the Allow cookies