1. What are cookies and why do we use them on the web?
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 made from that computer.
Cookies allow this website, among other things, to store and retrieve information about the user’s decisions and habits. We use them to personalize the experience within our websites, identify and remember the registered user and facilitate navigation.
It is important to note that the use of cookies does not provide personal user data.
The user can configure their browser to not accept the use of cookies, in which case the personalization of the experience would not apply although they will still be able to access the contents of our websites normally.
More information about what cookies are and how they work can be found on the Wikipedia page(http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_(informatics)).
2. What kind of cookies do we 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 when the purpose for which they are used is fulfilled (for example, to keep the user identified on the web) 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. By way of example, this typology includes:
- Volume settings of video or sound players.
- Video bitrates that are compatible with your browser.
– Geolocation Cookies: these Cookies are used to find out what country you are in when you request a website or service. 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 logged in, and are used to identify you on the websites and services for the following purposes:
- Keep the user identified so that, if you close a service or website, the browser or the computer and at another time or another day re-enter that service or website, you will continue to be identified, thus facilitating your navigation without having to re-identify yourself. This functionality can be deleted if the user clicks on the “Exit” functionality, so that this Cookie is deleted and the next time the user enters the web the user will have to log in to be identified.
- Check whether the user is authorized to access certain services, for example, to participate in a contest.
- Additionally, 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, the user authorizes the service to store a persistent cookie that remembers the user’s identity and grants access to the website until it expires. The user can delete this cookie and revoke access to the website through social networks or third party identification system by updating their preferences in the specific social network.
– Analytical Cookies: Each time a User visits a Website or Service, a third-party vendor tool (Google Analytics, comScore and the like) generates an analytics cookie on the User’s device. This cookie, which is only generated during the visit, will be used in future visits to the services to anonymously identify the visitor. The main objectives pursued are:
- Allow anonymous identification of browsing users through the “Cookie” (identifies browsers and devices, not people) and therefore the approximate counting of the number of visitors and their trend over time.
- Anonymously identify the most visited content and therefore the most attractive to users.
- To know if the user accessing the site is new or a repeat visitor.
Important: Unless the User decides to register on the site, the cookie will never be associated with any personal data that can identify him/her. These cookies will only be used for statistical purposes to help optimize the user experience on the site.
More information about the privacy policy of these analytics tools is available at: Google Analytics
– Advertising cookies: this type of cookies allow to expand the information of the advertisements shown to each anonymous user on the web. Among others, the duration or frequency of viewing advertising positions, the interaction with them, or browsing patterns and / or user behaviors are stored as they help to form a profile of advertising interest. In this way, they make it possible to offer advertising related to the user’s interests.
Third-party advertising service tools(Adservers – http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adserver”) are used to manage advertising. These third parties may store cookies sent from the web from users’ browsers, as well as access the data stored in them.
The companies that generate these Cookies have their own privacy policies.
3. How to disable cookies in the browser?
Most browsers currently allow the user to configure whether to accept cookies and which ones. 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: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=es
Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/es/kb/habilitar-y-deshabilitar-cookies-sitios-web-rastrear-preferencias
Internet Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/es-es/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies
Safari: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411?locale=nl_NL&viewlocale=es_ES