Anyone on the internet has encountered this warning when entering a site. Nowadays, the vast majority or all of the sites we browse on will display a warning the first time we access the page that explains what Cookies are used and how these files are stored.

But after all, what are these cookies and how are they used?

Cookies entered our vocabulary a few years ago. They already existed but the ordinary user was unaware of their existence or importance until 2009. Until then, sites operated on the premise that when browsing a particular page, the user consented to the information being stored by the Cookies without explicit authorization being required.

However, in 2009 a European Union directive forced site owners to put a warning in the event they resort to cookies. Nowadays, any modern site uses Cookies, which explains why all sites have this warning.

Cookies are small files that are stored on your computer to enhance your experience. They can be divided into 3 types:

• Essential Cookies: Cookies related to the technical operation of the site. They allow you to identify and save a user's session when you log in to your account or continue browsing an online store as you add new articles to a shopping cart. Without these cookies, some of the features of the site do not work.

• Functional / Personalization Cookies: Cookies that memorize user preferences for site features. These are these cookies that make the cookie warning appear only the first time you access the site and memorize the preferred language, for example.

• Analysis Cookies: These Cookies are those that least interfere with the user experience on a site but are important for collecting navigation information and user behaviour. These are the ones that allow advertisers to know the users in order to target advertising campaigns and site owners to know which are the most visited pages, among other data.

You can avoid storing cookies by adjusting your browser settings. However, disabling cookies will affect the functionalities of many websites. You can also use incognito mode in the main browsers.

Finally, we leave you with a curious fact: the name "Cookies" is due to the fact that the developers have spontaneously started to refer to these pieces of information as Cookies as a comparison between these fragments and the crumbs left when someone eats cookies.