Las cookies son ficheros de texto que se crean al visitar una pĆ”gina web, y que sirven para almacenar informaciĆ³n de diversos tipos que no deberĆa afectar a tu privacidad. Por poner un ejemplo, gracias a las cookies se pueden guardar las preferencias de una pĆ”gina web o la contraseƱa y el nombre de usuario durante un determinado tiempo. Sin embargo, algunas pĆ”ginas web utilizan la informaciĆ³n recogida en estas cookies para recopilar informaciĆ³n del usuario y seguidamente enviarle publicidad, por lo que se consideran un tipo de spyware.
How do I know if a site has malicious cookies?
When browsing the Internet, it must be done in a responsible manner: distrust must prevail. Generally, pages that appear to have ācontent of dubious legalityā, pornographic material and even that offer downloads of paid programs for free, tend to be the main sources of malicious cookies, and that is why companies such as Google or Microsoft warn us if we go to these sites from their search engines that we could be at risk.
Furthermore, modern browsers have algorithms to identify this type of pages, although they are by no means perfect, so it is not advisable to trust them 100%.
How do I configure my browser to manage cookies?
All current browsers allow you to manage cookies at different security levels. For example, in Internet Explorer, you can choose the security level by moving a slider bar. The higher this bar is, the more security and privacy we will have, and the lower it is, the more cookies and the less security we will have.
Although it may seem otherwise, it is not always better to have the slider at the top, since there are numerous web pages (for example banks) that require having them activated.
āInternet Explorer 7 cookie settings panelā
Urban Legends of cookies
- Cookies are similar to worms and viruses in that they can delete data from usersā hard drives.
- Cookies are a type of spyware because they can read personal information stored on usersā computers.
- Cookies generate popups.
- Cookies are used to generate spam.
- Cookies are only used for advertising purposes.