What does EU GDPR means for Adsense?

Question about GDPR and Adsense.

[hwint]

Question: What does EU GDPR means for Adsense?

Most of the Adsense income is from interest based ads. Will this be affected by the EU GDPR?
I'm concerned because today with the latest update for my Android Phone, I got asked for permission related to interest based ads. (Maybe it is because I did disable it before. This is to see the normal ads on my pages with Adsense. But I'm still concerned.)

[Travis]

In Adsense is there a way of seeing the percentage of revenue that is currently generated from "targeted ads"?

Yes of course. You have this in the performance report section under target type.

[dollarsound]

Performance reports -> Advanced reports -> Targeting types

* Just realized that it was already answered

[bgweb]

Thanks for the replies wrt the targeting types reports.

I see the AMP team is making available a component to enable publishers to surface a user consent notification. Apparently examples will be available in the next couple of weeks.

[azlinda]

@vegasrick - I use Sucuri instead of CloudFlare. Not sure if Sucuri has a way to block EU countries or not. I'll have to check into that. If not, I'll go with Travis's suggestion.

[ember]

if you have Cloudflare you can block as many countries as you want.

I think that is only for Enterprise sites. I've tried the challenge but EU people still come to my sites.

Or just use a cookie prompt for EU geos

Do you have code for that?

Or skip the cookie prompt and just wait for Adsense to activate option to show EU users only non-personalized ads.

Seems the most logical which it is why it probably won't happen.

I've been thinking of using a company that supplies code that redirects users to non-adsense pages based on country, but I'm not sure if IP addresses are still recorded.

[vegasrick]

@ember, there are plenty of cookie scripts that have this function of geotargeting like cookiebot.

I believe Google said in an email that EU function was coming.

[bgweb]

As I understand it if EU users view your site in the US (for example) they are still covered by GDPR. Also from what I've read it seems that GDPR may lead to a global shift in views on data privacy and online advertising. Therefore there is an argument to try and remain ahead of the game rather than block or apply different solutions at country level. I make no comment on the rights and wrongs of the situation and am talking purely from the perspective of maintaining a sustainable business model in the longer term.

[vegasrick]

@bgweb, all it will do is make the ad industry change to where they phase out tracking cookies and introduce a new way to display ads - just like popunders and popup ads became a dinosaur unit.

Based on speaking with friends and people I know in EU countries - they absolutely despise having to go through those cookie prompts on every single website they visit.

[ember]

Contextual ads worked just fine - and still do - before personalized ads came along. I wouldn't mind if personalized ads were phased out.

[Travis]

Contextual ads worked just fine - and still do - before personalized ads came along. I wouldn't mind if personalized ads were phased out.

Problem is, that advertisers seem to prefer personalized ads, since the are told they'll convert better, so what happens, is that advertisers massively invested in this kind of ad, and progressively abandoned the contextual ones. I hope that with the upcoming changes, advertisers will start showing again interest in contextual ads.

[Travis]

Based on speaking with friends and people I know in EU countries - they absolutely despise having to go through those cookie prompts on every single website they visit.

I think that the EU believed that, publishers / ad networks / social networks / etc... will prefer to change their practices than having to show the cook banner on their page. But it didn't work, this is why the EU GDRP is replacing all this, with more strict rules sand requirements. If the Internet is not succeeding to regulate itself and adopt good practices, then it's politicians who are doing it...

[Travis]

We are 6 weeks before the enforcing of the EU GDPR, I hope that adsense will deploy their options/cookieless ads system very soon.

[bgweb]

I'm also interested to know whether running Taboola requires "opt in" from the user before ads can be displayed. I found an article on their website about GDPR but I'm not sure where it leaves publishers:

[blog.taboola.com...]

[vegasrick]

There is hot debate regarding first view ads. From what I've read, first view ads are allowed - but if the person does not opt-in with the cookie consent script, then the first view cookie (or cookies) is supposed to be deleted once they click the opt out.

Every cookie consent prompt is different and from what I see most major and minor outlets in the EU have all sorts of cookie consent prompts and variations, and from what I see about 95% show first view ads and especially Taboola and units just like it.

[bgweb]

There is hot debate regarding first view ads. From what I've read, first view ads are allowed - but if the person does not opt-in with the cookie consent script, then the first view cookie (or cookies) is supposed to be deleted once they click the opt out.

Every cookie consent prompt is different and from what I see most major and minor outlets in the EU have all sorts of cookie consent prompts and variations, and from what I see about 95% show first view ads and especially Taboola and units just like it.

Many EU based sites currently do that because of the EU Cookie Directive.

The question is what will be allowed under the GDPR which is enforced from May 25th. My understanding is that users must opt in before seeing ads which have been personalised with individually identifiable information. There's a piece on PageFair which discusses it:

GDPR consent design: how granular must adtech opt-ins be?

[pagefair.com...]

[Travis]

I know that if Adsense is not coming with an option to disable cookies/tracking for EU visitors, I'll simply stop showing Adsense ads to EU visitors, and I'll display other things, like affiliate banners. (for those using affiliate banners, sometimes the code provided by advertisers are tracking users with cookies too!)

[vegasrick]

@bgweb, the EU Cookie Directive called for the same type of compliance and nobody ever followed it other than a select few - and none of those few were outside of the EU

[CommandDork]

Just got the GDPR email from Analytics. Right now I feel like this is going to be a headache for site owners / publishers to deal with the levels of nonsense being presented.

Hoping someone comes along with easy implementation of something that Google eventually accepts as OK.

[stever]

As with 'cookie consent', Google (and FB) want to move the onus from them over to you so that you have to jump through hoops to implement their services.

For example, I have to have a cookie consent form on the sites where I run AS because AS is the only thing on the site dropping cookies on people.

I imagine that my reaction (as an individual webmaster who provides information and does not sell actual items) is going to be something along the lines of:

* finally remove Adsense from the sites which still have it (which has been on the cards anyway because of more successful affiliate implementation)
* remove Analytics from the few sites that have it (because I don't find it particularly helpful anyway and I haven't really trusted Google not to link sites together)
* replace contact form pages with obfuscated email links
* remove social media buttons from the single site which implemented them
* rewrite privacy page to say "We don't collect or share information on this website. Full stop. (If you don't want us to have your details, don't send them to us in an email.)"

[bgweb]

"Do we need to gain explicit opt-in from users if we use Google Analytics?
No, not for a standard implementation of Google Analytics. Google collects a lot of data from every visit / visitor to your website but it does not store any personally identifiable information. A visitor’s IP address (which is now recognised as personal data by GDPR) is used to determine their physical location but the IP address itself is not stored. All data in Google Analytics is aggregated and anonymised."

Full article here:

[peakdemand.co.uk...]

Having said that I can find other articles which are less categorical about the situation.

[Travis]

About Analytics, this is this topic => [webmasterworld.com...]

[Travis]

Still no news from Adsense. I am starting to stress over it :)

The communication of Adsense on the subject is ambiguous and not clear. In the e-mail they sent some weeks ago, they mentioned that it was up to publishers (us) to obtain the (explicit) consent from users before showing interest based ads.

But at the same time, Adsense mentioned that they will propose options , which "suggests" that they will have an option available at the Adsense dashboard to disable interested based ads for EU visitors. But it's not that clear.

Or may be all this means that , we'll be able to disable interested based ads for EU visitors, and in that case, we have nothing else to do (and we can drop the cookie "consent" banner, if we are not using other kind of cookies), or we we can decide to continue to server interested based ads to EU visitors, and in that case, we have to set up a mechanism to obtain the consent from the users, BEFORE ads are loaded (which can be done by Javascript)

So all these are guesses, but time is running, and I prefer to know things a bit ahead, than at the last minute.

[bgweb]

I'm also waiting to see whether Taboola will offer the ability to disable interest based ads. Without going too far OT I can't say I've seen any websites asking for explicit consent to show interested based ads yet.

@Travis: Not sure where you're based (I'm UK) but the BBC article I've linked below is well worth a read and may help you destress a little! It sounds like in the UK a pragmatic approach will be taken - perhaps like with the EU cookie directive.

[bbc.co.uk...]

[darthtoon]

New tools on the way it seems:

[support.google.com...]

Sounds a little more promising than the cookie control launch, where they basically left everyone to fend for themselves.

The way I'm reading it the tools will only show the consent options to users in the EU area, which would be great if true.

[bgweb]

@darthtoon, that's my reading too. What isn't clear to me is will the consent tool:

1) show a pop-up / modal window when the user lands on a website
2) display a banner at the top / bottom of the page which remains there until the user selects yes/no to targeted ads. Until the user makes a selection are contextual ads served on the site by default
3) Will there be a third option to opt out of ads completely and go for Contributor site access

So at first glance my questions primarily relate to the UI aspects of the implementation and how much friction they add to the user experience.

[Travis]

Although these ads don’t use cookies for ad personalisation, they do use cookies to allow for frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting, and to combat fraud and abuse. Consent is therefore required to use cookies for those purposes from users in countries to which the ePrivacy Directive’s cookie provisions apply.

So, we'll still need to get the cookie consent banner :/

[steviec79]

So still nobody has any idea? Brilliant.

There quite clearly needs to be something like a 'dummies guide'.

1) Do this
2) Then, do that
3) Finally, finish with the other
4) Sorted.

[Travis]

There quite clearly needs to be something like a 'dummies guide'.

Google will never be too precise, because, if they make a mistake, they can get into troubles. So they'll always be loose in their explanations. Also, if there is a "fault", Google can blame publishers, for not having followed the rules...

Like for example, for the "previous" cookie consent rule, they didn't take risks, they gave links to other sites, mentioning they "might" provide valuable information and help. They never said themselves, what publishers should do exactly, so like that they are avoid taking responsibilities.

If the upcoming cookies coming with EU ads are not for tracking visitors, and their history, this shouldn't require a "consent" from the visitors, but not one will take the risk to validate this interpretation of the GDRP.

[bhukkel]

I just received an email from Google about GDPR and Adsense. It is pointing to this page [support.google.com...]

As a publisher you have two choices:
- Disable personalized ads in the EU on Adsense account level (https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/7670013)
- Control personalized ads yourself with an additional tag in the javascript code, You have to take ask consent yourself (https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/7670312)

[Travis]

Thank you @bhukkel. I don't see the option (yet), but it should be deployed soon.

Google has also updated it's site : [cookiechoices.org...] . There is an example of message to use for EU visitors, if you choose the non personalized ads option.