About cookies

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored on your browser when you visit almost any web page. The purpose of cookies is to enable the website to remember your visit when you browse this website again. Although it’s a little-known fact, cookies have been around for 20 years, ever since the WorldWideWeb browsers first appeared.

What is a cookie NOT?

It’s neither a virus, a Trojan, a bug, spam, spyware, nor does it open pop-up windows.

What kind of information does a cookie store?

Cookies usually do not store sensitive information about you such as credit cards or bank details, photographs, your national identity card number or personal information, etc. The data they store are technical in nature, personal preferences, content personalization, etc.

The web server does not associate it with you as a person but instead with your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse using Internet Explorer and you try to browse the same website using Firefox or Chrome, you’ll see that the website doesn’t realize that you’re the same person because cookies are linked to browsers and not to people.

What kinds of cookies are there?

  • Technical cookies: They’re the most basic cookies, and among other things, they can tell when an actual human vs. a bot is browsing, when an anonymous user vs. a registered user is browsing—basic tasks to run any dynamic website.
  • Analytics cookies: They collect information about how the user browses the website, the sections of the website they’ve visited most often, the products viewed, the time of visit, the language, etc.
  • Advertising cookies: They display ads based on your browsing habits, your country of origin, language, etc.

What are first-party and third-party cookies?

First-party cookies are generated by the website you’re visiting while third-party cookies are generated by external services and providers such as Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Google, etc.

What will happen if I disable cookies?

To help you understand what will happen if you disable cookies, here are some examples:

  • You won’t be able to share content from this website on Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter) or any other social media site.
  • The website won’t be able to tailor content to your personal preferences, which is usually the case for online shops.
  • You won’t be able to access the private area on our website, such as “My Account”, “My Profile” or “My Orders”.
  • Online shops: It will be impossible for you to shop online; you will have to place your order over the phone or go to the store in person, if there is one.
  • You won’t be able to personalize your geographical preferences such as time zone, currency or language.
  • The website won’t be able to carry out web analytics on visitors and site traffic, making it more difficult for the website to stay competitive.
  • You won’t be able to write in the blog, upload photos, post comments, review or rate content. The website won’t be able to tell whether you’re an actual human or a bot posting spam.
  • The website won’t be able to display targeted ads, which will decrease the website’s advertising revenue.
  • All social media sites use cookies. If you disable cookies, you won’t be able to use any social media site.

Can you remove cookies?

Yes, you can; not only remove, but also block, either generally or specifically for a certain domain.

To remove cookies from a website, go to your browser settings, search for the ones linked to the relevant domain and then remove them.

Managing cookies for the most popular browsers

Here we’ll explain how you can access a specific cookie in Chrome. Note: these steps may vary depending on the browser version:

  1. Go to Settings or Preferences via the File menu or by clicking on the “Customize Chrome” icon in the top right corner.
  2. You’ll see different sections. Click on Show Advanced Settings.
  3. Go to Privacy, Content Settings.
  4. Select “All cookies and other site data”.
    A list of all the cookies sorted by domain will appear. To make it easier for you to find the cookies of a certain domain, enter the partial or full address in Search  cookies. After applying this filter, one or several lines with the cookies of the relevant website will appear on the screen. Select the relevant cookie and click X to remove it.

To access the cookie settings in Internet Explorer, do the following (this may vary depending on the browser version):

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

To access the cookie settings in Firefox, do the following (this may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Go to Options or Preferences depending on your operating system.
  2. Click on Privacy.
  3. In History, choose Use custom settings for history.
  4. Now you’ll see Accept cookies. You may enable or disable them according to your preferences.

To access the cookie settings in Safari on macOS, do the following (this may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Go to Preferences, and then Privacy.
  2. Here you’ll see Block cookies. You can adjust this to the type of blocking you want.

To access the cookie settings in Safari on iOS, do the following (this may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Go to Settings, and then Safari.
  2. Go to Privacy and Security. You’ll see Block cookies. You can adjust this to the type of blocking you want.

To access the cookie settings for Android devices, do the following (this may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Open the browser and click on Menu, and then Settings.
  2. Go to Security and privacy. You’ll see Accept cookies and then you can check or uncheck the box.

To access the cookie settings for Windows Phone devices, do the following (this may vary depending on the browser version):

  1. Open Internet Explorer, click on More, and then Settings
  2. Now you can check or uncheck Allow cookies.