What are cookies, how do they work, and what are they used for?
A cookie is a piece of data stored in a user’s browser to provide the web server with more information about the user. This allows the server to remember certain parameters and information about the user, resulting in greater personalization and analysis of user behavior.

Cookies allow a website to recognize a user’s browser and do not contain or collect personal information. They are used, for example, to keep a user logged into an account (such as your Gmail account) without requiring them to log in every time they access the account. A good example is advertising, where, based on websites the user has previously visited, more relevant ads are displayed.

Most common types of cookies according to their purpose
The LSSI (Law on Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce) applies to cookies as defined above. This is like any type of data storage and retrieval device used on a user’s terminal equipment for the purpose of storing and retrieving previously stored information, as established in Article 22.2 of the LSSI (Spanish Law on Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce). Cookies allow the storage of data on the user’s terminal, ranging from a few kilobytes to several megabytes. Below, we will show you a classification of cookies based on several categories (note that a single cookie may belong to more than one category).

Types of cookies according to the entity that manages them
It’s one thing for a cookie to be its own, belonging to the website, platform, or application, and another for it to be from an external service (which is very common). Therefore, depending on the entity that manages the equipment or domain from which the cookies are sent and processes the data obtained, there are different types of cookies:

First-party cookies: These are sent to the user’s terminal equipment from a computer or domain managed by the publisher itself, from which the service requested by the user is provided.

Third-party cookies: These are sent to the user’s terminal equipment from a computer or domain not managed by the publisher, but by another entity that processes the data obtained through the cookies. If the cookies are served from a computer or domain managed by the publisher itself, but the information collected through them is managed by a third party, they cannot be considered first-party cookies if the third party uses them for its own purposes (for example, improving the services it provides or providing advertising services to other entities). Types of Cookies According to Their Purpose
There are different types of cookies, which can be classified according to their purpose in obtaining information about the user. It’s not the same to browse a website “without doing anything” as it is to log in to the web platform, click on links to other websites, or on advertisements. These are the types of cookies according to their purpose:

Technical Cookies: These are cookies that are necessary to allow the user to navigate through a website, platform, or application and use the different options or services available, including those that the publisher uses to manage and operate the website and enable its functions and services. For example, controlling traffic and data communication, identifying the session, accessing restricted areas, remembering items in an order, processing an order, managing payment, controlling fraud related to service security, storing content for video or audio playback, sharing content through social networks, etc.

Technical Cookies: These are cookies that are necessary to allow the user to navigate through a website, platform, or application and use the different options or services available, including those that the publisher uses to manage and operate the website and enable its functions and services. For example, controlling traffic and data communication, identifying the session, accessing restricted areas, remembering items in an order, processing an order, managing payment, controlling fraud related to service security, storing content for video or audio playback, sharing content through social networks, etc.

Preference or personalization cookies: These cookies allow the service to remember information so that the user can access it with certain characteristics that may differentiate their experience from that of other users, such as language, the number of results to display when the user performs a search, the appearance or content of the service depending on the type of browser used to access the service, or the region from which the service is accessed, etc. If the user chooses these characteristics themselves (for example, if they select the language of a website by clicking on the corresponding country’s flag icon), the cookies will be exempt from the obligations of Article 22.2 of the LSSI (Spanish Law on Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce) as they are considered a service expressly requested by the user (provided that the cookies are used exclusively for the selected purpose). 

Analytics or measurement cookies: These cookies allow the party responsible for them to track and analyze user behavior.