More information about cookies

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored into your browser when you visit almost any website. Their usefulness resides in allowing the website to remember your previous visits. Despite most people not knowing, they’ve been in use for 20 years, when the first browsers appeared.

What a cookie ISN’T?

They’re not viruses, trojans, worms, spam, spyware or open pop-up windows.

What kind of information is stored into cookies?

The cookies don’t usually store sensible information about you, like credit card or bank information, photos, identity numbers or other personal information. More commonly, they store technical data or personal use preferences.

The web server doesn’t associate the cookie to yourself as a person, but to your web browser instead. If you usually browse with Internet Explorer, you’ll notice if you try Firefox that the websites don’t seem to recognize you.

What kind of cookies exist?

• Technical cookies: They’re the most basic kind and allow for, among others, knowing if the one browsing is a human or an automated app, or if it’s either a registered user or an anonymous user.
• Analysis cookies: They gather information about the kind of browsing that is happening, the most browsed sections of the web, the time slots they come from, the language used, etc.
• Advertising cookies: They show ads depending on your browsing, the country the visit comes from ,the language, etc.

What are propietary and thrid party cookies?

The propietary cookies are the ones generated by the website you are visiting, and the third-party ones are generated by external services, like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.

Can I delete the cookies?

Yes, and not only delete, but also block them further, in general, or for a web domain in particular.

To delete the cookies, go to the settings options of your web browser and there search for the cookies options and the ones associated to the domain you want to delete them for.