The European GDPR is a regulation that affects all AdSense publishers whose reach extends to Europe. Even if you don’t live in Europe, Google is asking publishers to consider updating their privacy policies in order to conform with the new regulations.
AdSense publishers are encouraged to link to Google’s new GDPR page. Offers guidance on publisher responsibilities.
What is GDPR?
GDPR is an acronym for the European General Data Protection Regulation. The intent of the regulation is to provide a single regulation for businesses covering what data they collect, how that data is used and providing a way to inform Internet users about the use of their data and obtaining consent.
How GDPR May Affect Publishers Outside of Europe
It is likely the GDPR may affect publishers that are based outside of Europe. Google is recommending that all publishers with site visitors in the European Economic Area, including those outside of Europe, update their sites to insure that they conform with the new regulations.
Google has issued recommendations on the steps AdSense publishers may consider taking to conform with the EU General Data Protection Regulation.What is the GDPR Deadline?
As of this writing there is less than a month to comply. It’s why you’re likely receiving updated privacy policy notifications from a range of online organizations in the last few days. The official date the GDPR regulations come into force is May 25, 2018.
What is Google Recommending?
The good news is that AdSense publishers are not required to seek consent for site visitor’s activities on Google owned websites. However publishers are still required to seek consent for how they use Google’s ads on their own sites, in order to meet Google’s requirements under their EU User Consent Policy.
Here’s some of what Google published:
“You are not required to seek consent for a user’s activity on Google’s sites (we obtain that ourselves when users visit our sites). We are asking only that you seek consent for your uses of our ads products on your properties. We already require that certain consents are obtained from your users in the EEA, and we are updating those requirements in line with the GDPR. We encourage you to link to this user-facing page https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/partner-sites/ explaining how Google manages data in its ads products. Doing so will meet the requirement of our EU User Consent Policy to give your users information about Google’s uses of their personal data.”
Google Encourages AdSense Publishers to Link to Privacy Page
Google is encouraging AdSense publishers to add a link to their user facing Privacy & Terms web page .
That page advises users about:
- How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services
- Ad personalization
- How you can control the information collected by Google on these sites and apps
AdSense publishers are encouraged to read the entire announcement from Google to understand what is required and asked of them, in order to conform with GDPR.
Google has also published a Help Page with more information about the EU User Consent Policy.
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