EU GDPR and Adsense (or other ad networks)

[TravisDGarrett]

Hello-

I was wondering what are the implication of the European GDPR when one has adsense ads on his site?

Obviously Google and its third party ad networks are collecting IP address and browsing history. With Firefox there is a storage inspector tool, which is showing all cookies created and their content, and one adsense code, can sometimes produce 10 of cookies ! There are the one of Google / Doubleclick, but all kind, certainly set by intermediate networks, or advertisers themselves. What these cookies are doing might be against the GDPR rules.

So what's the consequence for the site publisher? It's not the publisher collecting or processing data about visitors in that case. But from what I understand the EU GDPR introduces the concept of a chain of responsibility. So by adding the Adsense code to a site, isn't a publish considered being part of the data collection?

Thank you for your enlightenment.

[RedBar]

I received an email from my webhost yesterday about this and I went, WTF is all this about?

Afer spending about an hour reading through various Government online doucumentations I was still no wiser.

UK ICO

[ico.org.uk...]

EU GDPR

[eugdpr.org...]

There seems to be loads of information out there yet I seem to be missing something ... a plain English guide!

[TravisDGarrett]

What did your Webhost say ?

[robzilla]

See also: EU GDPR: How will this affect webmasters? [webmasterworld.com]

[TravisDGarrett]

Yes, I did, I am even the last poster at this other topic. But it's not covering the subject of GDPR / Adsense / Ad networks' behaviors. That's why I was asking for this specific case.

[RedBar]

What did your Webhost say ?

They were pointing out what they were doing to comply and the basics of whether or not we needed to change/add anything to comply.

Who does GDPR apply to?
GDPR compliance isn't just for European companies.
GDPR applies to businesses of all sizes, regardless of whether you have 1 or 10,000 employees, and regardless of where you or your company is based.
If you offer products and services to customers located within Europe, then GDPR will apply to you.

What should you be doing?
If you haven't already done so, you should start your compliance efforts now.
If you run a business, website or collect and store information about EU citizens, it's important to note that you as the site owner are the data controller. If your site can collect data from EU citizens, including those in the UK, then we recommend that you review your data privacy and security practices and begin researching your responsibilities.
Every business is different and that may affect what you need to do to comply with GDPR. We encourage you to work with legal and other professional counsel to determine precisely how the GDPR might apply to you and your business.

More EU bloatiness.

[TravisDGarrett]

Thank you RedBar.

What is odd is, at the same time the text is detailed, long, and seems very picky, but in the other hand, there is so much loose concepts , and no one is taking risk, and tell you to seek advises with someone else.

[RedBar]

and tell you to seek advises with someone else.

Hehehe, yep, a typical EU mis-directive with all of them hoping that someone, somewhere will understand it and what may need to be done. Look at the EU Cookie Directive, has anyone been prosecuted over this apart from a company in The Netherlands? Were they?

There are still thousands of websites that do not comply with this yet has anything been done? Nah! Will anything anything be done? Nah!

OK, the GDPR is probably more important since it covers data breaches etc. however will anything be done to actually ascertain whether companies comply? Most unlikely until after something has happened and by then surely it would be too late?

I'm guessing that in the UK they will adopt a "laid-back" approach assuming all to be ok until all hell lets loose when something does go wrong. After all, I haven't seen any jobs advertised for new Governmental posts to monitor or to check for compliance, maybe I've not been looking in the right places, nevertheless I would say that the UK Govt would just say, "More bureaucratic and jobsworth nonesense from Brussels" or something similar and claiming that they can't afford it since we are living in an age of austerity!

Anyway, I'm doing what I've done for the past 25 years with websites. I check some of the most prominent and high-profile sites legal and privacy pages, see what they have done and adjust them to my own requirements ... after all, that's all a solicitor will do if you decide to get one involved and it's a darned site cheaper and quicker to do it this way.

[TravisDGarrett]

look at the EU Cookie Directive, There are still thousands of websites that do not comply with this

I think that in fact ALL site do not comply. Because, the EU Cookie Directive says that you need to receive the consent BEFORE writing a cookie. All sites are showing a message, and writing a cookie immediately.

Even if I agree with most of what you are saying, now, I think that , the "fear" of the fine, will force more people/business to pay more attention to the way they handle private data and improve this handling and processing. Which , by itself is a good move forward.