New Google Ads Policy

Just got an email from Google stating that we need to ask the consent of the user to use some data of the device to display ads, or to use Google Analytics, etc… All this to be complaint with the new EU requirements.

Does the EU requirements affect the other ad networks, or in this case is specific against Google?

I’ve got that e-mail too. I’ve not clear what we have to do. It only applies to adsense? or includes admob?

From what I understand, we need to integrate something that let´s the user know about the use of cookies, just like we see it on all websites that are using cookies nowadays. In the mail I received, it says products such as Google Adsense, Doubleclick are affected. Is Admob affected?

Now that I’m reading, seems that AdMob could be not affected, anyway I’m not sure… @armando, I believe that would be something like EULA, or am I wrong?

Could someone post the message from Google?

https://i.imgur.com/yQhmfk3.png

Google Cookie Choices

I personally recommend that you add some kind of terms of use and privacy conditions to your app.

This way you are better protected legally and covered things like this.

In my case when the user creates an account it shows a dialog where he has to accept the legal terms (includes terms of use and privacy conditions explaining cookies and other things).

I contacted the lawyer that created this for me and says I’m covered… :slight_smile:

As usual the Google explanations are as bad as possible… they don’t even clearly state anything about Admob (or any other Ads Network of course)

I suppose since Admob users get this message, it applies- besides other google products- for Admob, too.

It is necessary to display this kind of message inside of the application?

What I’m going to do is to add this policy inside (in my case) iTunes. As a tip over this field, says:

…We recommend using privacy policies for apps that collect data on the user or the device.

So far who received this message? only people using Admob?

Anyway, this looks different from the Privacy Policy that needs to be added as a link inside Google Play for every App.

@ernestofndz

First of all, I’m not a lawyer, so when I began worrying about legal things I contacted one. I had the app online for almost 3 years and about 1 Million installs without worrying about this. It cost me about 600€ to have the terms & privacy policy made and for guidance about how to show it for the user to accept.

At first I thought “I will look for some legal terms of some other app and copy it” but as the app made a small salary I felt better having a professional do it. With the added plus that I have someone to contact when I have a legal doubt about the app. E.g. some european country’s police officer contacted me about a user that created an account impersonating other user putting his phone on the user description.

In cases like this is nice to have someone knowledgeable to ask for counsel.

If shit hits the fan (legally speaking) your users have accepted some kind of legal terms in which you try to cover your ass in relation to things they do with your app: messages posted, images they uploaded… things like that.

Also, as per the Google mail we are speaking of, there’s the user data that you get (email, cookie, password, name, sex…) and you have to explain what you have to do with this kind of data.

Hope this helps you!

I have a “cookies” section in the legal terms of my app (it’s terms of use and privacy policy in one document).

The thing it’s that when the user opens your app (in my case when they create an account, because not-logged users cannot use the app) you have to make them accept this. In Google Cookie Choices you can see a code sample for this, it’s just a Dialog.

@androiddev4

I will probably contact with one lawyer if the doubts are not getting clear…

The web that Google is linking to in the email, you can see this text for the people using Google’s services such as AdSense or Analytics

We use device identifiers to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share such identifiers and other information from your device with our social media, advertising and analytics partners.

Password? I’m sure that’s not needed to display ads :slight_smile:

Think that the legal terms have to cover everything about your app, not only cookies for ads, analytics… Cookies for identifying user sessions or personalization of UI/behaviour also need to be declared in that doc.

Now that you are going to do it it’s better to think about everything :slight_smile:

The thing is, this is required for EU customers. So how would I know if the user if from EU, to display this message?

If you application does something like that, sure, and I appreciate your experience and knowledge after speaking with your lawyer. But as we are talking about this change related to Google Ads Policy in the EU, we should find the best way to handle this, leaving out the specific things that the application may do. In your case is more complicated, because you are creating accounts for the users, and they are submitting some data to your server, etc…

You can determine the location of the user to show the message (probably asking for more permissions) or simply show the same message for everyone and avoid the trouble.

Last year was advertising ID, this year is cookies policy statement. Wonder what is next year about.

The EU policy about cookies is only about webpages not apps…