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?
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?
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…
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.
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.
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
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
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.