What is a cookie?

A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any web page. The utility of a cookie is that the web is able to remember your visit when you return to surf through this page. Although many people do not know it the cookies have been in use for 20 years, when came the first browsers for the World Wide Web.

What IS NOT a cookie?

It is not a virus or a Trojan, not a worm, or spam or spyware, or open pop-up windows.

What information stores a cookie?

Cookies do not usually store sensitive information about you, such as credit card or bank account information, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. Data stored are technical, personal preferences, content personalization, etc.

The web server will not associate you as a person but as 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 see that the web does not realize that you are the same person because it actually associates you to the browser, not the person.

What kind of cookies do exist?

• Tecnical cookies: They are the most basic and allow, among other things, to know when is browsing a human or an automated application, when an anonymous user navigates and one registered, basic tasks for running any dynamic web.
• Cookies analysis: they collect information on the type of navigation that is being done, the sections you use most, consulted products, time period of use, language, etc.
• Advertising cookies: display advertising based on your navigation, your country of origin, language, etc.

What are own cookies and those of others?

The own cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting and third 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 may have disabling cookies we show you some examples:

• You won't be able to share content of this site on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
• The web site will not adapt content to your personal preferences, as often happens in online stores.
• You can not access the personal area of the web, such as my account, my profile or my orders.
• Online stores: it will be impossible to make purchases online, they will have to be per phone or visiting the physical store if you have one near by.
• It won't be possible to customize your geographic preferences as time zone, currency or language.
• The website won't be able to perform web analytics about visitors and web traffic, making it difficult for the web to be competitive.
• You won't be able to write on the blog, you can not 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.
• It won't be posible to show sectioned advertising, reducing advertising revenue from the web.
• All social networks use cookies, if disabled you can not use any social network.

Can cookies be deleted?

Yes. Not only deleted, also blocked, in a general or particular way to a specific domain.

To remove cookies from a website you should go to your browser settings and there you can find the associated domain in question and proceed to its elimination.

Cookies configuration for the most polular browsers

Here's how to access to a particular cookie of the Chrome browser. Note: These steps may vary depending on the browser version:

1. Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking the icon customization that appears above on the right.
2. You'll see different sections, click the option Show advanced option.
3. Go to Privacy, Content settings.
4. Select All cookies and site data.
5. A list of all cookies ordered by domain will appear. To make it easier to find cookies of a particular domain enter partially or totally the address in the search field cookies.
6. After making this filter one or more lines with the requested web cookies will appear on the screen. Now just select it and press the X to proceed to its elimination.

To access to the cookies configuration from the Browser Internet Explorer follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

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

To access the cookies configuration in the Browser Firefox follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

1. Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
2. Click on Privacy.
3. In History choose Use custom settings for history.
4. Now you will see the Accept Cookies option, you can turn it on or off according to your preferences.

To access the cookies settings in the Safari browser for OSX follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

1. Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
2. Here you can see the option Block cookies to fit the type of lock you want to perform.

To access the cookie settings for Safari browser for iOS follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

1. Go to Settings, then Safari.
2. Go to Privacy and Security, see the option Block cookies to fit the type of lock you want to perform.

To access the cookies configuration browser for devices Android follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

1. Run the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.
2. Go to security and privacy, see the Accept Cookies option to check or uncheck the box.

To access the cookies configuration from the browser for devices Windows Phone follow these steps (they may vary depending on the browser version):

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