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.)

[Cralamarre]

I decided to put my cookie consent banner back up, since AdSense earnings from EU visitors seem to be down no matter what I do. Might as well keep my AdSense account in good standing rather than lose it over what amounts to 10% of my traffic.

Since switching off personalized ads for EU visitors, AdSense earnings from the UK have been down 60-70%. Not a huge deal given that most of my traffic is from the US. But, if we're ever forced to turn off personalized ads for US visitors, based on my EU experience, it would probably mean the end of my site. Or at least, the end of the free version.

[QuaterPan]

But, if we're ever forced to turn off personalized ads for US visitors ... it would probably mean the end of my site

Not sure. Because in that case, there will be no more personalized ads at all, and so advertisers will move their budget to contextual ads.

[edited by: QuaterPan at 7:37 pm (utc) on May 31, 2018]

[Cralamarre]

Because in that case, there will be no more personalized ads at all, and so advertisers will move their budget to contextual ads.

Yes, but personalized ads are based on your previous interests, so even if contextual ads start paying more, they may not be clicked on as much. I always notice ads for things I've previously searched for, but I'm usually blind when it comes to contextual ads.

[romerome]

Curious for people in the EU. Does GDPR influence if you would want your country to stay in the EU. Basically does GDRP make you more likely, less likely or no difference as far staying in the EU.

Curious since outside of countries leaving the EU it seems incredibly unlikely GDPR will be rolled back.

Or do you think the EU structure needs to be reformed.

As someone that believes in privacy. This legislation seems like a giant fubar.

[QuaterPan]

Countries leaving the EU will keep the GDPR anyhow.

[NickMNS]

There are always two sides to an equation. Now for personalization firms such as Google take user history to infer what user wants to see, then displays it on a seemingly unrelated site. The thing is, those sites are likely not so unrelated. Google could in the future, if they don't already do this, make inferences based on contextual cues as to what products user will be most interested in purchasing. So one may have a website about gold-fish but then have ads appearing about a certain brand of car. Now it would appear that these topics are unrelated, but they are not. Google using past data in combination with solid A-B testing find these patterns. This could be quite effective. This would be similar to recommender system like those used by Netflix and Amazon. It may not be as effective as using browser history directly but still close enough.

It will like feel just as obtrusive as personalized, a possibly more so since it will likely more evident when its wrong, so more annoying.

This of course is great news for niche specific websites, as it would be a little more difficult to get accurate information from a site that has varied topics.

[ember]

Countries leaving the EU will keep the GDPR anyhow.

It is less intimidating dealing with Croatia or Latvia than the entire EU.

My site attracts well-paying advertisers because of its content so I'd like to return to the days of contextual ads.

[keyplyr]

I've had all personalized ads turned off for years so I've seen no changes in income beyond the normal up/down flux.

I've always been annoyed when ads follow me around from site to site and figure others get irritated with that too.

[ember]

I should probably just test it, but I always figured that turning off personalized ads would mean less auction pressure and therefore lower prices.

[NolMads]

@keyplyr, What if I don't select any of the options which are Personalized ads & Non-personalized ads inside my Adsense account? What will happen? I think there is an option that if you will not select any of the two will still be fine. Please, I need your help, I am confused.

[keyplyr]

@NolMads - The non-personalized ads is just a setting for EU visitors if you already chose personalized ads.

If you never chose to serve personalized ads, you don't need to do anything regarding EU ads in the settings.

You still need to serve EU visitors a notice that your site uses cookies however.

You also need to make sure your data storage meets GDPR standards.

[darthtoon]

I've been serving non-personalised ads to EU visitors for a week now with no drop in income, which is very encouraging.

[QuaterPan]

Just to say that the global non-personalized ad setting and the EU's one are not the same.

The global option is not using the user's browsing history to SELECT an ad, but it does track the user activity, and record in his history that he has visited your site, and this visit will be used for personalized ads at someone else site.

Whereas, the option under the EU user consent tab, does not use the user's history, AND does not add his visit to your site, to this history.

So even if personalized ads are disabled at the level of your adsense account, it still needs to be disabled in the EU user consent tab too. Otherwise, it will be non personalized ads, with tracking.... just saying.

[keyplyr]

The 2 accounts (one of which is my own) that have never had personalized ads turned on did not get an Adsense notice about the settings in the EU tab.

The other account I manage for a partner's business that has had personalized ads turned on for a couple years did get a notice at the top of the Adsense account about EU settings - and - got an email about it also.

[steviec79]

The 2 accounts (one of which is my own) that have never had personalized ads turned on did not get an Adsense notice about the settings in the EU tab.

The other account I manage for a partner's business that has had personalized ads turned on for a couple years did get a notice at the top of the Adsense account about EU settings - and - got an email about it also.

Which suggests Google are simply alerting people who ARE showing personalized ads.

[keyplyr]

Exactly

[NolMads]

@Keyplyr - I didn't choose any of the options yet since Google Adsense sent me a notification for the support of GDPR in last 2 days.

I think the 3rd option, Google Adsense is allowing you not to select any options but the common ad technology will continue to run.

[NolMads]

@darthtoon - Can you please share what did you do? Sounds interesting.

[keyplyr]

Well Google may be sending different notices out, depending on whether your account was serving personalized ads to EU or not.

Over the last couple weeks I've received emails at my my other sites regarding GDPR from Google but they weren't the same. They didn't direct me to the EU settings.

[No5needinput]

I think I am going to block all EU countries except UK and Ireland from most of my sites. So not worth the hassle...

@surfgatinho That's exactly what I have done - in addition to blocking CN and RU - at the dedicated server firewall level. No loss of site speed or Adsense revenue. Note: that I still use an updated privacy and an "I agree" cookie banner for everyone else.

[markwmo]

For people now blocking the EU, I'm curious why you don't just disable personalised ads for EU (and show the cookie popup that you should have already been showing). Or is it due to things other than Adsense?

Curious for people in the EU. Does GDPR influence if you would want your country to stay in the EU. Basically does GDRP make you more likely, less likely or no difference as far staying in the EU.

* Overall I'm glad of the GDPR.
* Even if I wasn't, UK Government seems in favour of such laws, so makes no difference. Might as well argue that my town should therefore leave the UK.
* Even if I and UK Governments weren't in favour of privacy laws, it doesn't seem worth the trade barriers, nor years of uncertainty over what's going to happen because no one has a plan.
* I'd still be doing the same for Adsense, since I'd still have EU visitors.

[No5needinput]

@markwmo

As mentioned in my post I now use an updated GDPR privacy policy, new "about cookies" page and an "I agree" cookie banner for the rest of the world - including UK and Ireland (NOT blocked). I have little traffic from the rest of the EU so I block them as I do not want some "ambulance chaser" trying to set a precedent or suing me for some little factor I may have out of place for any particular EU countries law -- And I DO have NON personalized ads in Adsense for the EU ticked off in Adsense prefs. I sleep slightly better knowing some petty law in an unheard of country would be less likely to screw me...

[markwmo]

Though bear in mind the you can be sued for any reason, or risk falling foul of any law anywhere in the world. I'd be more worried of frivolous lawsuits e.g. from the US (e.g., excessive copyright or patent claims, or liability claims) than a hypothetical worry that the GDPR might apply to non personalised ads.

[steviec79]

I saw an interesting cookie policy on a site yesterday.

Basically, they show the normal type of cookie policy with the "Accept" or "Read More" options. There is NO reject/deny option.

However, they don't display ads, until the visitor clicks 'Accept'.

If they don't click 'Accept', then no ads are shown, but the banner stays there.

I find it a possible halfway option - you're not showing ads, but at the same time you're not removing the cookie banner until they accept - which most people will, as it's just like any other cookie policy banner.

[QuaterPan]

@steviec79 this is what I am doing too since some days, but offering the possibility to refuse cookies. But, until the user made a choice, I display self promotions. So far, I was simply not showing ads to EEA visitors. Since I added the cookie banner, 80% are "accepting". When the click on accept, I refresh the page, with ads. I find it the best compromise, no cookies set before an explicit action of a visitor. In fact, I should enable personalized ads, since I am obtaining explicit consent.

ps: my cookie banner is not obtrusive (but sticky, at the bottom), so, even on mobile, it's easy to ignore it and still browse my site.

[steviec79]

QuaterPan, that's why I say it's a half way option. What you're doing is what a lot of people have already mentioned.

I'm saying this is what a website has used to cover the base of not showing ads, until they accept.

[bgweb]

I won't address the political side of GDPR / EU other than saying safeguarding privacy is important for many people.

Now that we are well past the GDPR deadline I will say that IMO it isn't working. Why? It has led to an uneven playing field and has introduced arbitrage. Exactly as I feared. In my sector a number of approaches have been taken. They range from doing nothing (not even a cookie banner) to presenting a full screen modal which requires action before browsing can start. It's a ridiculous situation and I'm sure not what was intended. The bottom line is the entire issue needs lifting up to browser level ASAP. What happens before then to level the playing field is anyone's guess. Do sites tighten or slacken to meet in the middle. We'll see.

[RedBar]

I'm loving it !.!.!

I am seeing sites ranked #1 with no freakin' policies/pop-ups/nothing all over the place, it's the biggest farce going.

Nothing, absolutely NOTHING, has changed apart from the crap G is delivering as a supposed SERPs.

This EU "Regulation" will do absolutely ZERO however . . . One thing I have noted!

I have been monitoring ALL the spam crap these last few weeks and I have to say that it has reduced enormously to the point of in the last two day I have had zero spam ... fingers crossed for this next week.

[steviec79]

A lot of rules/policies are done by people who have zero common sense. I've posted this at least once earlier in the thread.

It seems that I'm being proved correct. They've done something which is proving to be a stupid decision. Because it's made by thick people. People who are.. well... thick!

That's what happens when things are run by people who just aren't intelligent enough.

[Khensu]

I've got one small site right now, building 4 more. EU was less than 10% of the take so I just blocked it all. The only country I regret losing is the UK. Made $10K there last fall. Let's hope that Adsense can come up with a few lines of code that takes care of this. I am a small guy and very busy creating product, not a programmer. I really don't really have time for all this bureaucratic jazz.

I think the people who will really get hurt are the local EU publishers with location-specific websites. I think their move is going to cut deepest in their own backyard.