What is a cookie?

A cookie is a harmless textfile wich is stored in your navigator when a webpage is visited.  Cookies are created when you use your browser to visit a website that uses cookies to help the page to remember your visit. Not a lot of people knows this , but cookies have been used for at least the last 20 years, when the first World Wide Web browsers appeared.

What is not a cookie?

A cookie is not a virus, a trojan, a worm, spam, spyware and it doesn’t open pop-up windows

Which kind of information is stored in a cookie?

Cookies are not used to store sensitive information about you, like credit card, bank account data, photographs, identification documents or personal information, etc. The data that they store are data of technical nature, preferences, content customization, etc.     The web server doesn’t relate to you as person, it does to you web navigator. In fact, if you usually browse the web with Internet Explorer and you try to browse the same web with Firefox or Chrome, you will notice that the web doesn’t recognize you as the same person that browsed it in Internet Eplorer, because  it is related to it, not to the person.

What types of cookies are being used?

• Technical cookies : They are used to help the page know when is being browsed by a humen or an automated system, if the user is anonymous or a registered one, basic task for the proper functioning of any dynamic website.
• Analytics cookies:This type of cookies store data about your navigation, which sections are more visited to you, time zone, language, etc.
• Advertising cookies: Advertising cookies help ensure that the advertisements you see on our Web site are related to your searchs, language, country, etc.

What are first party and third party cookies?

First party 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 I disable cookies?

In order to understand the scope of disabling cookies, we show you 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 the contents to your personal preferences, which is usual in case of online stores.
• You will not be able to access the personal area of ​​this website, such as>My account, or My profile or My orders.
• Online shops: You will not be able to make purchases online, they will have to be done by telephone or by visiting the physical store if you have it.
• 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 traffic on the web, which will make it difficult for the web to be competitive.
• You will not be able to write in the blog, you will not be able to upload photos, post comments, or rate content. The web will also not being able to know if you are a human or an automated application that publishes spam.
• You will not be able to show sectorized advertising, which will reduce the advertising revenues of the web.
• Every social network uses cookies, if you deactivate them they will not be able to work properly.

Can cookies be erased?

Yes. Do not just delete, also block, in a general or particular way for a specific domain.

To remove cookies from a website you must go to the configuration of your browser and there you can search for those associated with the domain in question and proceed to its removal.

Setting up cookies for more polular browsers

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

1. You will see different sections, click on Show advanced options.
2. Go to em>Privacy, Content settings.
3. Select All cookies and site data.
4. A list with all cookies sorted by domain will appear. To make it easier for you to find the cookies for a given domain, enter the address in the Search for cookies field.
5. After this filter, one or more lines will appear on the screen with the cookies of the requested web. Now just select it and press the X to proceed to its elimination.

To access the cookies configuration of the Internet Explorer browser 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 until you adjust the level of privacy you want.

To access the cookies configuration of the Firefox browser 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 choose Use a custom settings for history.
4. You will now see the Accept cookies option, you can activate or deactivate it according to your preferences.

To access the cookies configuration of the Safari OX browser follow these steps (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):

1. Go to Preferences, then Privacy.
2. In this place you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of block you want to perform.

To access the cookies configuration of the Safari iOS browser 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 block you want to perform.

To access browser cookies settings for Android devices 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, you will see the Accept cookies option to enable or disable the checkbox.

To access browser cookies 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 box.

Asesor de Cookies its a WordPress plugin created by Carlos Doral (webartesanal.com)