Personalized ads (AdSense)

Also another thing. I received your latest email where you say:

“Btw., in my understanding, the GDPR does not forbid the usage of cookies and ads without specific consent. I would only like to provide a solution for those who want to give their visitors the ultimate control of external services.”

What do you mean by that? It’s not strict rule to have cookies consent?

Thanks in advance!

Thank you, PapGeo.

First of all, I am not a lawyer. I read all these news like everyone else and it seems that also legal counsel is still trying to make sense of it, so you get three opinions if you ask two lawyers.

Regarding Google AdSense, there are two questions: what do you have to do regarding the GDPR and what do you have to do because your business partner Google AdSense demands you.

If Google AdSense wants you to get consent first, then this is what you have to do when using their service. This is an agreement between you and them.

I have not yet read a statement from an authority (e.g., the EU) whether using (personalized) ads might be a justified interest (probably not the correct legal term). Even if it would be, this doesn’t mean your business partner couldn’t ask you to go beyond the demands of the GDPR.

The good news is that there will be a solution in your AdSense account by tomorrow. You will be able to disable personalized ads for EU visitors only. Just follow this tutorial. No coding needed.

About my email. I agree that it is a bit misleading and actually touches my statements above. Not using any cookies until explicit consent is given is one interpretation, but there are other. I am stopping here because I don’t want anyone to believe I have the right answers. As said, I don’t believe a lot of people have them, yet.

I would really appreciate any correction of my statements with legal sources, but would not like to discuss interpretations here. That is done anywhere else already.

Thomas

Thomas, thanks for your reply. I understand your point.
As I understand it, Google gives to their partners a choice between personalized and non-personalized ads. My consideration is if we actually want personalized ads for EU users, How We Apply the… (from the link you gave me)

“However, if you want to give each of your users a choice between personalized and non-personalized ads, select “Personalized ads” and follow the instructions for serving non-personalized ads on a per-request basis.”

which leads here: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/7670312

and really don’t understand if we are obligated to give users this choice.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by PapGeo.

I might not know the nuances of legal English, but it looks like you would need consent from EU visitors before showing personalized ads.

You can either use the instructions from the link I sent to show only non-personalized ads do EU users. This would be the fastest solution.

Or wait until I publish a solution on our end. I am gathering all this information about how users are already getting consent to come up with a simple feature that helps with that and is flexible as well. I will start implementing it soon, but not before tomorrow.

Thomas

I came across https://huffingtonpost.com (the popup loads after 1-2 seconds – for those located in eu I suppose) and I think this could be a perfect example. Just that a thought that might help you extra.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by PapGeo.

Well, if someone wants that I am sure we can build some kind of integration with Advanced Ads. Is that their solution or added by a third party?

Unfortunately I don’t know. I just sent it to you because I’m sure you will understand better what I’m trying to tell.