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.)

[riccarbi]

From what I understand, California is very soft, and not really constraining.

That's not the point. Do you think you could have a GDPR banner served to users from California, another for those in the EU, and, maybe, one tailored for users from NY? that's not realistic. Unless you sell refrigerators in San Francisco (meaning you manage local business websites, no pun intended), you'll end with a single GDPR (the less soft) which works for all your potential users, either from California or from, say, Ireland.

[Dimitri]

indeed, that's why I was saying the California's bill is not changing anything.

keyplyr keeps saying it, threat all your visitors / clients, with the same high level of privacy protection and information.

[bgweb]

Interesting piece about GDPR and European websites, in particular those operated by Axel Springer:

[uk.reuters.com...]

[Dimitri]

Interesting bgweb.

[tjf1974]

Is the geo ip targeting working for the Cookie Consent by Insites banner? I used the code that was posted here for the location ("location": "true",) . I'm not sure if this ever worked as intended to show it to only GDPR countries. It seems like maybe they changed the code or something happened to cause it to appear for many people on my site yesterday.

[Dhillon]

The default service used by cookie consent stopped working yesterday, - [freegeoip.net...]
You will have to replace it with some other geo ip service.

[Cralamarre]

Has anyone found a solution to keeping the Silktide Cookie Consent banner visible only to EU visitors, now that the default geo targeting service has stopped working?

[MayankParmar]

Anyone?

[Leosghost]

Buy maxmind pack.

[Dimitri]

Maxmind also has a free-for-all GeoIP lite database, which is more than enough for this usage.

[dev.maxmind.com...]

[Leosghost]

True :) I've been using a paid version of maxmind for so many years that I forgot they did the free one.

[Dimitri]

Leosghost, it's possible that, for your use, you need more accuracy, and more details which are not available in the GeoLite database. But for those, who just want to know the country of a visitor, it's enough.

There is also IP2Location which has a free [lite.ip2location.com...] and paid database [ip2location.com...]

note: shameless self promotion [webmasterworld.com...] how does IP location work ?

[Dimitri]

I see more and more big sites, now displaying a full screen banner to obtain the explicit consent from users to use personalized ads. So far, these sites had slightly modified their cookie banner only. So, I wonder if, they had disabled personalized ads for the EU and discovered how much their earnings had collapsed. Now,they certainly find it mandatory to serve personalized ads, and therefor receive the explicit consent from the user. Or may be regulators started to issue warnings.

The thing is, this is terribly annoying for visitors, because, each site you visit you get this full screen message.

Between this and all these non-EU sites which are blocking access to EU 's IPs, things are turning so wrong here.

As I said, I had to stay off line for a whole year, and when I returned, it's like in these old sci-fi movies, where you woke up in a parallel World.

[RedBar]

The thing is, this is terribly annoying for visitors, because, each site you visit you get this full screen message.

I am having people asking me every day what they can do and when I say "nothing" they simply do not want to believe me.

The biggest issue by far is with mobile, I tried to use my partner's iPhone, arghhh ... never again.

[Dimitri]

If it continues like that, I'll miss the time of pop-unders ...

[MayankParmar]

It's funny that Google still don't have a built-in cookie consent banner solution for AdSense. Most of the sites with AdSense don't show the banner.

[Dimitri]

From what I understood from my readings, Google/Adsense will come with its in-house solution next month, or by the end of Summer. (certainly to be ready for the holidays).

I think that Google is taking its time, because it worries to be 100% responsible if something is not fully compliant. I mean, if it's Google/Adsense is handling consents (for cookies or/and personalized ads), then it's Google which will have the full responsibility (regarding cookis/ads). Whereas, so far, Google tried to make publishers exclusively responsible in case of non compliance. (Regulators since said that both publishers and Google (or other networks) share the responsibility).

Now, I hope (may be dream) that Google will come with a mechanism which can be common to all Adsense publishers. Like for example.

- Joe visits MayankParmar's site,
- Joe is presented with a banner asking to allow personalized ads or not (or cookies for non personalized ads, still didn't understand why a consent is required for this),
- Joe says "ok",
- MayankParmar's site displays personalized ads to Joe, and makes Mayank rich,
- Joe, then visits my site,
- personalized ads (from adsense) are served directly without having another consent banner,

In other words, if someone accepted cookies/personalized ads at one site, then, it applies to all other sites displaying Adsense. Without having each single site displaying a banner, and having to receive consent. Adsense can perfectly add a sticky small button at each site, so the user can remove his consent if he changes his mind.

Or better, it might be handled directly at the level of the Chrome browser. From what I understood, this is something which is coming next, so why not do it right away. This would be profitable to everybody.

[Broaster]

Man ever since that EU GDPR my adsense earnings from UK are gone, no more clicks from them I used to get most of my adsense clicks from euro visitors not anymore

This sucks now California is going to have their own? how the hell can anyone make money off adsense or ad networks now?

[Leosghost]

how the hell can anyone make money off adsense or ad networks now?

How about ethically, and not abetting Google and the other ad networks to abuse visitors private data ( without telling them that is what you are doing by using ad networks that drop cookies and track ) and thus giving the visitors a choice.

[fretfull]

I removed everything Google, Adsense and Analytics, right before the deadline. I notice that I still get a tiny amount of hits from both Adsense and Analytics. It's a small like a hit a day. I've confirmed I don't have any of the Google code left on my site. What causes this? My only thought is that it's from cached pages.

[CommandDork]

I would guess cached pages too.

I have adsense adblocks I've not used for months and they still report trickle traffic.

[Dimitri]

cached pages, of scrappers which also grabbed your Adsense code.

[MayankParmar]

Friendly Reminder: Nothing happened. GDPR ruined the internet beauty and Google still don't care about the GDPR tools for webmasters.

[Leosghost]

Slight correction..GDPR happened..peoples privacy got a boost ( most sites however are not compliant, including many belonging to people here..including yours Mayank :) and Google didn't come through with any "tool" to help adsense publishers..some of us are not at all surprised..Google do not "look out" for publishers, they don't care about any of you..

[steviec79]

Basically... I know of a lot of people who did sweet FA... nothing. No popup.. nothing alerting people about cookies... Nadda. Still earning as much as they normally would.

So much for the scare tactics which some posters on here attempted.

[NickMNS]

GDPR happened..peoples privacy got a boost

Slight correction... peoples privacy did not get a boost. But residents of the EU are now wasting millions in tax dollars to fund another useless bureaucracy.

[Leosghost]

It is not because some people did nothing... that other peoples comments were scare tactics..It is still "early days" ..wait for at least a year..both the EU and Google have other things on their minds at the moment..

Would be so good to think that some might wish to be compliant to protect the privacy of their visitors, rather than only being worried about if Google were going to jump on them immediately..But , again ..greed is stronger in most people than is thinking of others ..

[Leosghost]

Slight correction... peoples privacy did not get a boost. But residents of the EU are now wasting millions in tax dollars to fund another useless bureaucracy.

Peoples privacy ( those in the EU ) got a boost..millions are not being wasted in "tax dollars" on this in the EU ..( you do realise that the EU doesn't use dollars ? )..and the money for the budget of the EU does not come directly out of taxes ( which are levied in Euros ) ..It cost virtually nothing for the EU to pass this law..and will cost virtually nothing to enforce when they get around to it..

But then you probably live outside the EU..or in a country shortly to be outside the EU..so you do not actually know how the EU works..( except for what you have read ) hence your reference to "tax dollars" in the EU :)

[steviec79]

Leosghost: Let us all know the benefit you get from this.

You either gain from this directly, or you're trying to cause mayhem and raise your own personal profile.

Which is it?

[Leosghost]

I gain from this ( and so do all other EU citizens ) because it is now so much harder for Google and other major corps to profile us ( and then tailor results and products , and prices ) ...rais my profile ?

I have never given a crap about my profile ..( if you had not joined just this year , you'd know that from my posts ) when I stopped posting here a couple of years ago, the stupid points system here had just been introduced..I said publicly it was stupid thing to instigate ..I have never given any points , because the points system is stupid ( panders to the high school most popular guy or girl syndrome )..but..at the time I stopped posting I had waaay more points than any other member..go figure..

"Trying to cause mayhem ?" ..No :)
..My purpose always has been is to speak the truth that others frequently will not, to make people think, question..and to "remove the cork"*

*Umberto Eco reference..