Further Information About Cookies

What Is a Cookie?

A cookie is a harmless text file that is kept in your web browser when you visit virtually any web site. Cookies help the website remember your visit when you come back to navigate the same web site. Even though it is unknown to many people, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first web browsers appeared to navigate the World Wide Web.

What Is Not a Cookie?

It is neither a virus, nor a Trojan, a worm, spam, spyware or an application opening pop-up windows.

What Information Is Stored by Cookies?

Cookies do not usually store sensitive information about you, such as details about your credit cards or bank details, pictures, your ID Card or personal information, etc. The data stored are of technical nature, personal preferences, customisation options for the contents displayed, etc.

The web server does not recognise you as an individual, but it recognises your web browser. In fact, if you usually navigate using Internet Explorer and try to navigate the same web site using Firefox or Chrome, you will realise that the web site does not recognise that you are the same person, since it is in fact recognising the web browser, not the individual.

What Types of Cookies Are There?

Technical cookies: These are the most basic cookies and are used to carry out several functions (including to know whether the navigation is performed by a person or by an automated application, when an anonymous user and a registered user are navigating), and some basic tasks for the operation of any dynamic web site.
Analytic Cookies: These cookies collect information on the type of navigation of a user, to track the most used section, the products browsed, the time when the site was navigated, the language used, etc.
Advertising Cookies: They display advertisements based on a user’s navigation, home country, language, etc.

Own Cookies and Cookies Owned by Third Parties

A web site’s own cookies are those generated by the web site a user is visiting, whereas third parties’ cookies are those generated by external services or providers, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.

What Happens If I Disable the Cookies?

To understand what may happen in the case that cookies are disabled, some examples are provided:

You will not be able to share contents from that web site on Facebook, Twitter or any social media.
The web site will not be able to adapt its contents to your personal preferences, as it usually occurs with online stores.
You will not be able to access web site’s personal area, such as, for instance, My Account, My Profile or My Orders.
Online Stores: You will not be able to purchase online. Orders must be made on the telephone or visiting the physical store, if any.
You will not be able to customise your geographic preferences, such as your time zone, currency or language.
The web site will not be able to analyse the visitors or the web traffic, making it difficult to have a competitive web site.
You will not be able to publish blog posts, upload pictures, share comments, assess or rate contents. The web site will not be able to find out whether you are a human being or an automated application publishing spam.
Customised advertisements will not be displayed, reducing the advertising incomes of the web site.
All the social media use cookies. If you disable them, you will not be able to use any social media.

Can Cookies Be Deleted?

Yes. They can be both deleted and blocked, in general or specifically for a particular domain.

To delete the cookies of a web site, go to the settings of the web browser and search for the cookies associated with the specific domain and proceed to delete them.

Cookies Settings for the Most Popular Web Browsers

Please, see below how to have access to a specific cookie in the web browser Chrome. Note: These steps may vary based on the version of the web browser:

Go to Settings or Preferences in the File menu or clicking on the customisation icon displayed at the top right corner.
You will see different sections. Click on the Show Advanced Settings option.
In the Privacy section, click Content Settings.
Select All cookies and site data.
A list with all the cookies sorted by domain will appear. To easily find the cookies for a specific domain, enter a part or the full address in the field Search for cookies.
After this filter, one or several lines with the cookies of the web requested will be displayed on the screen. Now just select and click X to proceed to delete them.

To access the cookies settings for the web browser Internet Explorer, follow the following steps (they may vary based on the version of the web browser):

Go to Tools, Internet Options
Click on Privacy.
Move the slider to adjust the desired level of privacy.

To access the cookies settings for the web browser Firefox, follow the following steps (they may vary based on the version of the web browser):

Go to Options or Preferences based on your operating system.
Click on Privacy.
In History, select Use custom settings for history.
You will now see the Accept cookies option. You can enable or disable this option based on your preferences.

To access the cookies settings for the web browser Safari for OSX, follow the following steps (they may vary based on the version of the web browser):

Go to Preferences and then Privacy.
In this section, you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking that you want to establish.

To access the cookies settings for the web browser Safari for iOS, follow the following steps (they may vary based on the version of the web browser):

Go to Settings and then tap on Safari.
Go to Privacy and Security and you will see the option Block cookies to adjust the type of blocking that you want to establish.

To access the cookies settings for the web browser Android devices, follow the following steps (they may vary based on the version of the web browser):

Launch the browser and tap on the Menu option. Then press Settings.
Go to Security and Privacy and you will see the option Accept cookies to enable or disable this option.

To access the cookies settings for the web browser Windows Phone devices, follow the following steps (they may vary based on the version of the web browser):

Launch Internet Explore, then tap on More and then on Settings.
You can now check or clear the Allow cookies item.