1. What are cookies and why do we use them on websites?
A cookie is a file that is downloaded to the user’s device when accessing certain web pages to store and retrieve information about the navigation that is carried out from said equipment.
Cookies allow said website, among other things, to store and retrieve information about the user’s decisions and habits. We use them on our website to personalize the experience, identify and remember the registered user and facilitate navigation.
It is important to note that the use of cookies does not provide personal data of the user, who remains anonymous for our company.
The user can configure his browser to not accept the use of cookies, in which case the personalization of the experience would not apply, although he will be able to continue accessing the contents of our websites normally.
On the Wikipedia page (http:// es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_(informatics)) it is possible to obtain more information about what cookies do and how they work.
2. What type of cookies does our website use?
Cookies, depending on their permanence, can be divided into session or permanent Cookies. The former expire when the user closes the browser. The latter expire depending on when the purpose for which they serve is fulfilled (for example, so that the user remains identified on the websites and services of our company) or when they are manually deleted.
Additionally, depending on their purpose, Cookies can be classified as follows:
- Performance Cookies: This type of Cookie remembers your preferences for the tools found in the services, so you do not have to reconfigure the service each time you visit. For example, this typology includes:
- Volume settings for video or sound players.
- Video transmission speeds that are supported by your browser.
- Geolocation Cookies: These Cookies are used to find out which country you are in when a website or service is requested. This Cookie is completely anonymous, and is only used to help target content to your location.
- Registration Cookies: Registration Cookies are generated once the User has registered or subsequently opened his session, and are used to identify him on the web and services with the following objectives:
- Keep the user identified so that, if he closes a service or website, the browser or the computer and at another time or day re-enters said service or website, he will continue to be identified, thus facilitating his navigation without having to return to identify. This functionality can be suppressed if the user presses the “Exit” functionality, so that this Cookie is eliminated and the next time the user enters the web, he will have to log in to be identified.
- Check if the user is authorized to access certain services, for example, to participate in a contest.
- In addition, some services may use third party connectors such as Facebook, Twitter or Google. When the user registers in a service with credentials from a social network or third-party identification system, he authorizes it to save a persistent cookie that remembers his identity and guarantees him access to the web until it expires. The user can delete this cookie and revoke access to the website through social networks or third-party identification systems by updating their preferences in the specific social network.
- Analytics Cookies: Every time a User visits a Website or Service, a tool from an external provider (Google Analytics, comScore and similar) generates an analytical cookie on the user’s device. This cookie, which is only generated during the visit, will serve on future visits to our company’s services to anonymously identify the visitor. The main objectives pursued are:
- Allow the anonymous identification of browsing users through the “Cookie” (identifies browsers and devices, not people) and therefore the approximate accounting of the number of visitors and their trend over time.
- Anonymously identify the most visited content and therefore the most attractive for users
- Know if the user who is accessing is new or repeat visit.
- Advertising cookies: this type of cookie allows expanding the information of the advertisements shown to each anonymous user on our company’s websites. Among others, the duration or frequency of display of advertising positions, the interaction with them, or the browsing patterns and/or user behaviors are stored, since they help to form a profile of advertising interest. In this way, they allow to offer advertising related to the user’s interests.
3. How to disable cookies in the browser?
Most browsers currently allow the user to configure if they want to accept cookies and which of them. These settings are usually found in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser.
These are the instructions to configure cookies in the main browsers:
- Chrome: Settings -> Show advanced options -> Privacy -> Content settings.
For more information, you can consult Google support or the browser Help. - Firefox: Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> History -> Custom settings.
For more information, you can consult Mozilla support or the browser Help. - Internet Explorer: Tools -> Internet Options -> Privacy -> Setting.
For more information, you can consult Microsoft support or the browser Help. - Safari: Preferences -> Security.
For more information, you can refer to Apple support or browser Help.