Google AdSense and Cookies (Cookie Law) email

EU Cookies

[Badger37]

Hi all,
I've just received an email from Google regarding AdSense and Cookies.
Cookie Law came in a couple of years ago and seems mostly to be a waste or time and just another irritation to website visitors. I was hoping that it would quietly go away!

The email from Google reads as if you now have to implement a 'consent mechanism' if you have already - are other people receiving these emails and what are peoples views (especially if they are in the UK like me).

I've put the Google email text below.
Thanks.



Google Ads Policy Team
Dear Publisher,

We want to let you know about a new policy about obtaining EU end-users’ consent that reflects regulatory and best practice guidance. It clarifies your duty to obtain end-user consent when you use products like Google AdSense, DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

Please review our new EU user consent policy as soon as possible. This requires that you obtain EU end users’ consent to the storing and accessing of cookies and other information, and to the data collection, sharing and usage that takes place when you use Google products. It does not affect any provisions on data ownership in your contract.

Please ensure that you comply with this policy as soon as possible, and not later than 30 September 2015.

If your site or app does not have a compliant consent mechanism, you should implement one now. To make this process easier for you, we have compiled some helpful resources at cookiechoices.org.

This policy change is being made in response to best practice and regulatory requirements issued by the European data protection authorities. These requirements are reflected in changes that have been recently made on Google’s own websites.
Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.
Regards,
The Google Policy Team

[denisl]

I'm in Spain - perhaps I had clicked on a cookie message in the past and have forgotten - dont know if they set a cookie with a long life.

[Badger37]

While implementing my 'cookie consent banners' I've found that using the Incognito (Chrome), InPrivate (IE), In Private Window (FF) options work well - much quick than deleting a saved cookie etc. when testing :)

[Leosghost]

Does safari , or whatever else apple devices use, have a "private mode ?

[Broadway]

By my count, 4 non-EU publishers have posted here that they plan to comply.

And is also stated here, repeatedly, it would take nothing for Adsens to place this announcement in the notifications area of the console so there would be no question that this important change was brought to the attention of all.

[Leosghost]

Unless G was looking for an excuse for a major "cull" of adsense publishers..and was thinking of using the "you didn't keep up to date with the TOS, which we don't have to notify you about directly, as per the TOS"..in addition to trying to pull the PR card over the EU investigations..

Eric ..nothing would surprise me..

[screamingmidget]

Unless G was looking for an excuse for a major "cull" of adsense publishers..and was thinking of using the "you didn't keep up to date with the TOS, which we don't have to notify you about directly, as per the TOS"..in addition to trying to pull the PR card over the EU investigations..

Eric ..nothing would surprise me..

But the question I then ask is - what benefit is there to cull publishers?

I'm VERY confident that they lower the % earned by publishers (vs Adwords users) towards each quarter, if they are below their targets. Especially the higher earners. I've noticed my RPM almost halve for about 2 weeks every 3 months and then go back to normal. I think they do this because they have to make their money back and they do it by basically thieving it from us publishers.

But removing people who are making them money, however low, doesn't make much sense to me.

[Badger37]

@Leosghost
Does safari , or whatever else apple devices use, have a "private mode ?

Yep :)
"Private Browsing" - [support.apple.com...]

[EditorialGuy]

I'm VERY confident that they lower the % earned by publishers (vs Adwords users) towards each quarter, if they are below their targets. Especially the higher earners. I've noticed my RPM almost halve for about 2 weeks every 3 months and then go back to normal. I think they do this because they have to make their money back and they do it by basically thieving it from us publishers.

If you really believe that, why do you continue using AdSense? (I ask that as someone who's dumped a couple of affiliate programs that I no longer trusted.)

[ember]

Unless G was looking for an excuse for a major "cull" of adsense publishers

Then why notify EU publishers? Why not chop them off at the knees, too, if that is the plan?

[Leosghost]

EU publishers already had to have the cookie warning..the EU said they had to a long time ago..( became mandatory in 2012* for all EU based websites, not just EU websites which had / have adsense ) we even talked about it here, at the time..

Search for "EU requires cookie warning on sites" to read about how it was introduced..

Google didn't care if EU publishers obeyed EU law before ( Google itself was in trouble with the EU over other things, but thought that they could get out of it ) ..Now, since the person dealing with Google at the EU has changed, and she has said that Google must comply with EU competition, law, and the EU has also said that they do not like how Google is scraping images etc ) Google are trying to mount a PR campaign with the EU authorities in the hope that the EU will "back off" a little..


Not all EU websites ( whether or not they use adsense ) did / do show a cookie warning since 2012..

The EU has not done much about them..some have been prosecuted, but not many..Most EU websites did put a cookie warning in place in 2012..

Google will no doubt apply the same sanctions to EU websites that don't have the cookie warning, as they will to non EU based sites that do not after end of September 2015..

Some EU based websites may not have been individually contacted by Google about this either, not all the website owners in the EU, or any other country post or red WebmasterWorld..how many EU websites ( and especially EU fora ) do you read, that are not in English..?

So how would you know if all EU publishers got notified individually by Google..I don't know..and I'm in the EU, and I read non English language EU websites, but I don't read very single one..;)

Plus..There are far fewer people posting on WebmasterWorld nowadays than there used to be, from all countries, I notice far fewer posting from the EU or outside of the U.S.A than there used to be..and fewer from inside the U.S.A, we, those who are posting here are no longer a large enough sample of the webmasters of any country to be taken as being representative of anything, certainly not of "who got notified individually by Google" of "anything"..

What makes you think that Google have told all EU websites individually about this..Logically Google would not need to contact any off us in the EU, they could simply say that we would already know via EU law about cookie consent / notification.. ..which as businesses in the EU we are already required to know and comply with..:)

As far as I'm aware any one in the EU that runs a website that makes money from any source, be it adsense or other ads( direct or 3rd party ) or selling products or services..Has to have ( by the laws of the country they are living in or based in fiscally ) a business registration of some sort..They cannot just declare their income at the end of the year as a private individual, because in any EU country, we are all required to pay not only taxes on income, but also a percentage of that income as mandatory or obligatory "social security, health care, and retirement/ pension contributions" ..That means that all EU adsense publishers ( unless working as illegal undeclared businesses ) are expected to comply with all national and EU laws that apply to their type of business in their respective countries..

In a similar example..in France..if you sell on Ebay ..and you sell over 20 times per month( whatever the total value of those sales, whatever the items are, new or used, doesn't matter.. Ebay France are required to notify the central French social security services..URSSAF..of your name, address, and the amounts of money you have made..The URSSAF will then insist that you pay a percentage of that money to them as "contributions",,and they will tell the French equivalent of the IRS about you, who will the expect you to declare it at the end of the fiscal year..

So...No working without paying contributions or taxes via the web here..here it is called working "black"..or "au noir"..

Google are also required by EU ( and in my case French law ) to notify the tax and social security organisations of the country that the EU publisher is resident in of any and all monies paid out by Google via adsense..

Might take the authorities a while to get around to knocking on your door, or in some cases just blocking your bank accounts ( which they do not need a court order to do in France ) but eventually they do get around to everyone..

I know ..because I have helped out some members here ( and other people not members here ) when the French authorities have "caught up with them"..and I "consult" for a couple of branches of the French "authorities" occasionally..

ps..@Badger37..thanks for the info :)

[RedBar]

Excellent post Leosghost, succinct and explains the EU system which we have been living with for three years now and by which all EU websites should already have been operating.

I have to say I didn't know about the 20 items French Ebay ruling, that would screw-over a lot of sellers in the UK if we were to adopt similar.

[Broadway]

I'm on the verge of buckling on this issue, and annoyed that Adsense would allow me to waste my time and clutter up my pages on an issue that I still anticipate they are just giving lip service to.

I'm running a test tonight to see if running Evintus' code affects earnings or number of pageviews.

One problem I was having with the code was it was setting the cookie on a per subdirectory basis (i.e. www.example.com/subdirectory1 or www.example.com/subdirectory2, depending on where the page is located). Clicking the "dismiss" option would only deactivate the notification on other pages in that same subdirectory.

I'm no expert with JavaScript but adding a path parameter that sets the cookie in the root as shown below seems to have resolved my problem.

document.cookie = cookie + "=" + value + "; " + expires + "; path=/";

[7_Driver]

Looking back at this issue as the deadline approaches - and looking carefully at Google's content policies and what they require to comply with them.

From "Required Content - My Privacy policy" [support.google.com...]

If you have not opted out of third-party ad serving, the cookies of other third-party vendors or ad networks may also be used to serve ads on your site, and should be disclosed in your privacy policy in the following manner.

Notify your site visitors of the third-party vendors and ad networks serving ads on your site.
Provide links to the appropriate vendor and ad network websites.

I've just checked my Google Certified Ad Networks in Adsense, and I see there are 2,124 of them!

I wonder how many Adsense publishers link to all 2124 networks from their privacy policy as this "Required content" section appears to demand?

So even if you implement the EU cookies nonsense - you still won't be compliant with Googles T&Cs...

[ChanandlerBong]

I would bet good money that pretty much every AS website out there falls foul of the precise T&Cs in some way or other, there's a lot of them and a good half are useless legalese fluff.

[screamingmidget]

EditorialGuy, because I make a decent income, so I just lower my traffic to sites that have Adsense when I know they are having a funny do. I then send more traffic once things are 'back to normal'. I work with other people who have their own accounts, so if their accounts haven't been artificially lowered, I'll send more traffic to their sites instead.

They are unscrupulous, that's for certain sure, but not sure how they'd benefit in culling publishers, however little they make Google.

I imagine there's 1 reason why they havn't told everybody: It's to see whether they can get away with it. If they are contacted with a, "Em, why aren't these websites adding a cookie policy?", they can then simply contact the rest of the publishers. In other words, they probably think a Cookie Policy will lower the overall income from Adsense and so are testing the water first to see if they can get away with only directly warning a certain % of publishers.

[Jon12345]

The 30th of September is looming and I have a mad panic going on. I've put some horrid cookie popup warnings on some sites but I have no idea what to use for the privacy policy. Are there any templates on what to use? I am using Adsense, Google Analytics (and other stuff).

For that matter, I am not even sure what wording I am supposed to use on the popup itself! I have "This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. More info." Is that enough? I am using Silktide.

[ember]

I'm using Silktide, too, and my message just says that the site uses cookies and has link to my Privacy Policy which explains about cookies, the EU law, etc. I guess I'll find out soon if this is enough or not. You might find a reputable site that uses Adsense and see what their privacy policy says.

I imagine there's 1 reason why they havn't told everybody: It's to see whether they can get away with it. If they are contacted with a, "Em, why aren't these websites adding a cookie policy?", they can then simply contact the rest of the publishers. In other words, they probably think a Cookie Policy will lower the overall income from Adsense and so are testing the water first to see if they can get away with only directly warning a certain % of publishers.

That makes sense.

[ChanandlerBong]

I will not be joining the circus. Will wait for the deadline to pass and see what happens. I'd be surprised if more than a third of global adsense sites are doing this, even though they should all be doing it. Then we'll see what comes out....

[Broadway]

I buckled and complied. I also feel used.
I ran across an article that showed how some (evidently) big websites had handled the EU cookie notice issue.
None of them seemed to have a box-with-dismiss type notice.
Many of them just made a link on their pages using the words "cookie policy."
Some even put this link down in the footer.

My implementation leaned heavily on Evintus' code.
The box is width:100% but just one line of text in height, position:fixed;bottom;0
I only say "This site uses cookies. More | Dismiss" - Primarily because that amount of text fits well on all responsive formats as a single line of text.

I had already positioned a sharing-icon bar at the bottom of my page in the same location, and just placed the cookie notice over it, thinking people would see the hint of the sharing icons and dismiss the cookie notice to get to them. That didn't work. Sharing dropped off about 85%.

I changed Envintus' code so the box "display:none"'s after 30 seconds, thinking that no one spending less than 30 seconds on a page would tend to share it anyway. Today, sharing seems back to normal levels.

Maybe the display:none doesn't meet the criteria, but as compared to a site that does nothing, I hope I get a pass.
I also changed my standard footer link from "Privacy Policy" to "Privacy and Cookie Policy".

For anyone using Envintu's code, here's how I "display:none"'ed it.

var element = document.getElementById('eucookie-notice');
setTimeout(function () {element.style.display = 'none'}, 30000);

[vegasrick]

I spoke with a top EU Cookie Code website that has thousands of clients who use their service for disclaimers. They told me the EU law pertains to EU websites and not websites getting EU visitors. They don't even have GEO targeting for their services because the law pertains to EU sites regardless of where the visitors are coming from. Basically, the way they explained the law to me, is it's about where the site is based from and not where the visitor is based from.

[Leosghost]

We know that..this is not about what the EU law is ..this is about Google trying to pretend what the EU law is..
it is Google threatening people's adsense accounts if they do not do this ..the EU doesn't require it..unless one is EU based..this was said ( by myself and others )right at the beginning of the thread..

[vegasrick]

Who did Adsense threaten because I don't know of anyone? That said, I don't know anyone who they've even emailed.

[azlinda]

It appears that the EU is screwing everything else up. They may as well mess with our websites too.

[ember]

That said, I don't know anyone who they've even emailed.

It seems that they emailed EU-based sites but no one else.

[Broadway]

This whole issue, the stealth change of a significant obstacle to hurdle in the TOS, just reeked.
Another example of Google/Adsense just dumping on publishers as a whim.
Wasn't there a frat-boy scene in the movie Animal House where one guy was being paddled and then said "Thank you sir, I'll take another."?
I just looked at my Media.net stats. Ad/Impression RPM for them is 75% of Adsense, and I delegate them only to the bottom half of my pages. When am I going to wise up?

[Leosghost]

That said, I don't know anyone who they've even emailed.

It seems that they emailed EU-based sites but no one else.

@ember ..that is the second time that you haven't remembered what netmeg and others who are not EU based have reported..in this very thread..it is only 11 pages long..not so hard to read from the beginning..page 1 onwards
Some non EU based adsense publishers got this too and netmeg ( as reported in this thread further v back, for those who take the time to read from the beginning ) had direct feedback from Google..

@vegas rick..please read this thread from the beginning...page 1 onwards..those who were contacted posted..including the OP..whose post is on the top of every page of the thread..

@azlinda

It appears that the EU is screwing everything else up. They may as well mess with our websites too.

unless you are in the EU, the EU isn't asking you to do anything..and as far as I know you are not in the EU..nor is "the EU screwing everything else up"..not even going to ask you what you think it is doing, but why do so many think that politics has to be dragged into their posts..politics is not for WebmasterWorld..People here are from all, over the world..all different kinds of politics..we keep our politics to ourselves..please do likewise..

[robzach]

Just got this email, install it later.

[netmeg]

I've installed it on every site I'm gonna install it on (and I left a couple sites without it where I could just remove the AdSense if I had to - just to see if anything happens)

Once again, here's some reference links. Believe them or not, as you will. But yes, I did get confirmation from an actual honest to God AdSense rep:

[adsense.blogspot.com...]

[support.google.com...]

[smallbiztrends.com...]

[marketingland.com...]

[techcrunch.com...]

[truste.com...]

Happy Reading.

[darthtoon]

Have to admit I'm waiting until the last minute before implementing this.

Curious to know if anyone who's tried it already has noticed much of an impact on their Adsense CTR?

[ember]

@ember ..that is the second time that you haven't remembered what netmeg and others who are not EU based have reported..in this very thread..it is only 11 pages long..not so hard to read from the beginning..page 1 onwards

@Leosghost, I guess that, unlike you, I do not have time to sit here and read 11 pages of comments. I am busy running a site, holding a job, raising kids, looking after a parent, managing a trust, managing a rental property and taking care of a dog. I'll try to do better.