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 usefulness of the cookie is that the website is able to remember your visit when I return to that page. Although many people do not know this, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.

What is NOT a cookie?

It’s not a virus, nor a trojan, nor a worm, nor spam, nor spyware, or pop-up windows.

What information stores a cookie?

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 store is of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalisation of contents, etc.

The web server does not associate you as a person but with your web browser. In fact, if you usually surf the web with Internet Explorer and try browsing the same site with Firefox or Chrome you will see that the site does not realize that you are the same person because it is actually associating the browser, not the person.

What kinds of cookies do exist?

• Technical cookies: These are the most elementary and allow, among other things, to know when a human being or an automated application is surfing, when an anonymous user and a registered user are surfing, basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic website.
• Analysis Cookies: Collect information on the type of navigation you are doing, the sections you use most often, products consulted, time of use, language, etc.
• Advertising Cookies: Display advertising based on your navigation, country of origin, language, etc.

What are the own cookies and third parties cookies?

Own cookies are those generated by the page you are visiting and those of third parties are those generated by external services or providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.

What happens if l disable the cookies?

So that you understand the extent of disabling cookies, here are some examples:

• You may not share content from that website to Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
• The website will not be able to adapt the contents to your personal preferences, as is often the case in online shops.
• You will not be able to access the personal area of that website, such as My Account, or My Profile or My Orders.
• Online shops: It will be impossible for you to make online purchases, they will have to be by telephone or by visiting the physical shop if you know you have one.
• It will not be possible 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 web traffic, which will make it difficult for the website to be competitive.
• You will not be able to write to the blog, upload photos, post comments, rate or rate content. The web site will also not be able to tell if you are a human being or an automated application that publishes spam.
• It will not be possible to show sectorized advertising, which will reduce the advertising revenue of the website
• All social networks use cookies, if you turn them off you will not be able to use any social networks.

Can cookies be deleted?

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

To delete cookies from a website you need to go to your browser settings and there you can search for the associated cookies in the domain and proceed to their removal.

cookie settings for the most popular browsers

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

1. Go to Settings or Preferences using the File menu or by clicking on the custom icon at the top right.
2. You will see different sections, click on Show advanced options..
3. Go to Privacy, Content Settings.
4. Then Select All Cookies and Location Data.
5. A list of all cookies sorted by domain will appear. Because it is easier for you to find the cookies for a particular domain, enter part or all of the address in the Search for Cookies field.
6. After making this filter, one or more lines will appear on the screen with the cookies of the requested website. Now all you have to do is select it and press X to proceed to its removal.

To access the cookies settings of your Internet Explorer browser, follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version)::

1. Go to Tools, Internet Options
2. Click Privacy.
3. Move the slider until the privacy level you want is set.

To access the cookies settings of your Firefox browser, follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version):

1. Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
2. Click on Privacy.
3. Under History choose Use a custom setting for history.
4. You will now see the Accept cookies option, which you can enable or disable according to your preferences.

To access your browser’s Safari for OSX cookie settings follow these steps (may vary depending on browser version)::

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

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

1. Go to Settings, then Safari.
2. Under Privacy and Security, you will see the Block Cookies option to set the type of block you want to make.

To access your browser’s cookie settings for Android devices follow these steps (may vary depending on the browser version):

1. Run the browser and press the Menu key, then Settings.
2. Go to Security and Privacy, you will see the Accept Cookies option so you can check or uncheck the box./li>

To access your browser’s cookie settings for Windows Phone devices follow these steps (they may vary depending on your browser version):

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

“Cookies Advisor” is a plugin para WordPress created by Carlos Doral (webartesanal.com)