Every time you browse the Internet from your phone (or any other device), you store a large amount of information on your mobile with which they can identify you (cookies) and which saves you time the next time you load the pages (cache). Both accumulate without a periodic cleaning schedule.. Therefore, it is convenient to keep the browser updated and know how to do it.
Privacy is one of the areas that are currently causing the most concern, especially in the area of smartphones. The threat of malware is notorious, tools like Pegasus have revealed the enormous danger that threatens our mobile use. And there is an element which, without being dangerous as standard, does not entails significant privacy risks: the web browser. Use one you trust and keep it up to date. For what might happen.
Browser can accumulate large cache space
Cookies and cache belong to all the information that the web browser accumulates for facilitate user navigation. These two tools are not dangerous in themselves, but they can be risky since the pages can access a large part of the data they store. With this information, a website would know which other pages we visit; What’s its use create a model of tastes and personality
The privacy risk is one of the aspects that we must take into account when cleaning an Android from cookies: by carrying out this process regularly, we will ensure that the pages do not have access to navigation data, visits and other information used to track the user. Deleting cookies eliminates many of these risks, always at a price: each time we visit the pages we will have to start the session again, the shopping carts will not have saved the products in the shopping cart and other useful aids that will disappear during navigation. . .
Cookies do not take up too much storage space, quite the contrary of the cache: browsers such as Google Chrome, Samsung, Brave or Firefox can accumulate GB of downloaded space. In principle, this is information that is saved so as not to have to download it again (photos, videos, documents, etc.); data that you may never need again and that will remain in the cache until you clean it up.
The two big benefits of clearing cache and cookies are:
- greater confidential ity
- More space available. Cleaning releases a considerable amount of information that, in most cases, the user does not need.
- Allows you to restore a specific view. There are websites that save a cookie on the phone to tell the browser how to load the page next time. Deleting said cookie restores the default view of the page.
As is often the case, deleting cache and cookies has its drawbacks. These are:
- Anything saved on the pages is lost. Baskets, language selections, logins, web colors… All these options are stored in a personalized way in the form of cookies.
- No more spending on data and time when reloading websites. If the cache is emptied, it is essential to load the images, videos and HTML again; mobile data will therefore be spent if the page has already been visited. Offline access is also lost.
There are browsers that include self-cleaning functions for cookies, including caching: it’s worth activating them if privacy is one of the things you’re most concerned about. Besides, incognito browsing will prevent cookies from remaining in the browser, as well as most of the cache
If you’re worried about cookies and cache, it’s best to browse in incognito mode: once the anonymous session is closed, everything downloaded is automatically deleted.
How to Clear Your Web Browser Cache
It doesn’t matter which app you use to browse, as the way to clear cache is generic on Android:
- Go to your phone’s settings and enter the “Applications” section.
- Find the browser you use regularly. Google Chrome, Brave, Opera, Firefox…
- Go to the “Storage and cache” options.
- You will see how much temporary information your browser has stored. To delete this data, click on the “Empty cache” icon.
- Clearing the cache has no noticeable effect on your browsing: You will simply download the information again if you navigate to a previously visited page.
How to delete cookies from your browser
While deleting cache is the same for all Android apps, deleting cookies varies by web browser (although it’s quite similar between them). The process should be as follows:
- Open your browser and go to settings.
- Go to privacy and security settings. The exact name varies from browser to browser.
- Go to “Clear browsing data”.
- Select the deletion of cookies and site data and proceed to its elimination.
- To remember: deleting cookies will prevent your browser from remembering your preferences on websites you have previously visited.