What is a cookie?

A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit any web site. Cookies are used so that the web site can remember your visit when you browse the site again. Although many people are not aware of it, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.

What a cookie IS NOT?

It is not a, trojan horse, worm, spam or spyware and it does not open pop-up windows.

**What information does a cookie store?**

Cookies do not generally store sensitive information about you, such as credit card or bank data, photographs, you I.D. card number or personal information, etc. The data they keep is technical, such as personal preferences, personalisation of contents, etc.

The web site server recognises your web browser, rather then you. In fact, if you usually browse with Internet Explorer and then visit the same web page with Firefox or Chrome, you will see that the site does not realise that you are the same person because, what it really recognises is the browser, not the person

**What kinds of cookies are there?**

Technical Cookies: are the most basic ones. What they allow includes when a person or an automatic app is browsing, when an anonymous or a registered user is browsing, basic operational tasks of any dynamic web site.
Analytical Cookies: collect information about the kind of browsing you are engaged in, the sections you use the most, products checked out time zone, language, etc.
Advertising Cookies: show adverts in accordance with your browsing, your country of origin, language, etc.

**What are proprietor cookies and third-party ones?**

Proprietor cookies are the ones generated by the web page you are visiting and the third-party ones are those generated by external providers like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.

**What happens if I disable the cookies?**

We will give you a few examples for you to understand the scope of the impact of disabling the cookies:

You will not be able to share the contents of this web site on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media.
The web site will not be able to adapt the contents to your personal preferences, as usually happens at on-line shops.
You will not be able to access the personal section of this web site, such as, for example My account, My profileor My orders.
On-line shops: It will be impossible for you to do any shopping on line, you will have to use the telephone or visit the physical shop if there is one.
It will be impossible to personalise your geographic preferences, such as time zone, currency or language.
The web site will be unable to conduct web analysis about visitors or traffic on the web site, making it difficult for the site to remain competitive.
You will be unable to write on the blog, you will be unable to up-load photos, post comments, assess or score contents. The web site will not be able to tell if you are a person or an automatic app that sends spam.
You will be unable to show targeted advertising, hence reducing the advertising revenues of the web site.
All the social media use cookies, if you disable them, you will not be able to use any of the social media.

**Can cookies be eliminated?**

Yes, you can’t just eliminate them, you can also block them, either generally or individually for a specific domain.

To eliminate the cookies of a web site, go to your browser settings, where you will find the settings for the domain in question and you can eliminate them.

Cookies settings for the most popular browsers

Below, you will find how to access a given cookie of the Chrome browser. N.B.: these steps may vary depending on the version of the browser:

Go to Settings or Preferences on the Save menu or click on the personalisation icon that appears in the top right-hand corner.
You will see different sections, click on Show advanced options.
Go to Privacy, Content settings.
Select All cookies and web site data
A list will appear with all the cookiesorganised by domain. To make it easier for you to find the cookies of a given domain, enter the address, partially or fully, in the Find cookies
After going through this filter, one or several lines of the cookiesof the web in question will come up on screen. The only thing you have to do now is select the ones you want and click on the X to eliminate them.

In the case of Internet Explorer, follow these steps to access their cookies (this may vary depending on the version of the browser):

Go to Tools, Internet Options
Click on Privacy
Move the slide to adjust the level of privacy you want.

For Firefox, follow these steps to access their cookies (they may vary depending on the version of the browser):

Go to Optionsor Preferences depending on the operating system
Click on Privacy
In History,select Use a personalised setting for the history
You will now see the option Accept cookies. You can enable it or disable it as you wish

If you use Safari for OSX, follow these steps to access the settings of the cookies (this may vary depending to the version of the browser):

Go to Preferences, then Privacy
Here, you will see the option Block cookiesto adjust the kind of block you want to enable

If you use Safari for iOS, follow these steps to access the settings for cookies (they may vary, depending on the version of the browser):

Go to Settings, then Safari
Go to Privacy and Security, where you will see the option Block cookiesto adjust the kind of block you want to enable

Android users should follow these steps to access the settings of the cookies of the browser for these devices (they may vary, depending on the version of the browser):

Run the browser and click on the Menu button, then Settings

Go to Security and Privacy and you will see the Accept cookies option that you can use to enable or disable them