How to disable user metrics at app level?

[3c]

I'm using AdMob for the past 10 years, and recently (a year or 2 ago?), user metrics started to be automatically included in all my apps.

Sadly, this causes ANRs and crashes to dramatically increased since. So I searched ways to disable those metrics at app levels, but couldn't find any documentation.

Even more so, whole communities do not want to install my apps because of this tracking without consent that is being made automatically! In EU, this behavior is definitely not GDPR compliant.

Documentation doesn't mention anything about disabling it, but instead says it's there and active out of the box: https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/android/quick-start#initialize_the_sdk

So I  tried to get rid of those packages with various methods:

Proguard:

    -assumenosideeffects class com.google.android.gms.dynamite.** {}

Gradle:

    all*.exclude group: 'com.google.android.gms', module: ''

It didn't help in any ways as the dynamite package is still there.

My question is very simple, how do I disable this to be not only GDPR compliant and offer the same quality to countries outside of EU.

I've created a question on stackoverflow, but received no answer. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62082042/how-to-get-rid-of-googles-dynamite-measurement-in-apk

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us.

 

You may check out the user tracking-related topics from the standalone version of the AdMob SDK here, which should also be applicable to the Firebase version. In particular, you can request consent from EU users for GDPR compliance, tag ad requests for child-directed treatment for COPPA compliance, and restrict data processing for CCPA compliance.

 

As for your concern over the GMS Dynamite package: I'm afraid that this package is technically outside the scope of the AdMob SDK (since it is more related to Google Mobile Services in general than AdMob). I would encourage you to seek further assistance for this particular concern on more Android-specific help forums (like StackOverflow).

 

Regards,

Ziv Yves Sanchez

Mobile Ads SDK Team

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q21ARRk:ref

[3c]

Let me clarify the situation, I'm not using GMS dynamite package in any ways. No dependency with it. It is Admob SDK which includes it automatically.

Furthermore I have integrated consent for EU and even if user refuse consent (no personalization), the dynamite package integrated by AdMob continues to collect data, obviously against user's denial!

So again, how do I disable AdMob from using dynamite package to collect data.

Here is AdMob documentation stating that user metrics are available, no matter what: 

https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/android/quick-start#view-user-metrics-analytics-data

So please don't deflect my question to another group which have nothing to do with the issue at hand.

[3c]

Said otherwise, how do I prevent AdMob from including and using GMS dynamite package. It (AdMob SDK) didn't use to do that in the past, but now it automatically collects data with no way to prevent this from happening even when user consent is not given.

On Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at 9:24:28 AM UTC+2, mobileadssdkforumadvisor wrote:

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

 

Thank you for clarifying your concern.

 

I'll check in with the rest of the team in order to gather our insights with regards to the GMS Dynamite package. We'll get back to you soon on this.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi,

This is Sam from the Mobile Ads SDK support team.

Can you please provide some specific details about the issue you are seeing with your app in terms of behavior related to the Mobile Ads SDK? In particular you have mentioned 'user metrics ... causes ANRs and crashes ...', and also 'communities do not want to install my apps because of this tracking'.

Can you point out which tracking in particular that you and the communities you mention are referring to, and also the ANRs and crashes (examples are fine) that are caused by this tracking?

Sorry for the clarifying question, I just want to ensure we are on the same page in terms of what SDK feature we are talking about here.

Regards

Sam

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q21ARRk:ref

[3c]

I "used to" have MobileAds.initialize(context, appid); call made in the first onCreate() activity call. And I could see lots of ANRs because of that. At the time, I cannot remember which version of the SDK I was using, before today I was on 18.3.0. Just started to deploy APKs with 19.2.0. About a year ago (can't remember exactly when it started and I will have to dig into CSV for this change and old ANRs to find out), I moved the call into a worker thread to avoid the problem and it worked just fine so far, but didn't remove all the other ANRs caused by the measurement package, which represent about 90-95% of all ANRs I received, if not more.

That's why I disabled all user metrics on all my apps in AdMob, but those ANRs keep occuring anyway! The console is filled with those!

I've attached a few different examples, extracted from console.

ANR1, 2 and 4 shows 'indirect ANRs' caused by the package either blocking main thread or slowing down device so much it affects the app. The measurement thread is the only one running and the main thread shows no actual activity from the app.

ANR3 shows a direct ANR cause by this package, got many of them.

ANR5 is blocked by a thread doing SharedPreferences work, which I do not use, so I'm pretty sure it's caused by measurement package again, as it's the only thing actually running.

As for communities, the feedback is that from a user 'promoting' my app to his community. The community said that they will not use my apps because it was tracking/collecting their data/usage which was unacceptable for them. I also received a few bad ratings saying my apps are tracking/collecting their data/usage.

So, not only AdMob is giving a bad experience to many users with so many ANRs, but it also prevents many installs from end-users! And the reward/earning is so low I'm starting to wonder if there's any point keeping AdMob in my apps, so I'm seriously considering removing it completely!

FWIW, I've not included ANRs caused by ads themselves, got many of them too, sadly!

If only I could disable this data collection, it'll dramatically improve users' acceptance/download/reviews and experience.

Looking forward to your insight on how to achieve this, with big hopes.

Let me stress that I've disabled user metrics on all my apps (in AdMob console) but data collecting continues to occur, at the cost of lots of ANRs.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Thanks for the detail, however I think you forgot to attach the ANRs?

Another question to clarify, what is the particular evidence of user metrics being tracked that the community is referring to that is stopping them from using your apps? Is it from ADB logs, network traffic, etc? Something specific would be useful.

[3c]

Indeed, forgot to attach them and have attached them now.

As for the evidence, as it's mostly bad user reviews, users didn't bother explain or show any evidence. I've always thought it was network traffic, if it was local I don't think it will bother them so much.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi and thanks for the additional info.

I have reported the ANRs you supplied to the engineering team and we will investigate those as this appears to be unexpected behavior.

With regards to the SDK reporting usage metrics, this feature is a core part of the SDK and cannot be disabled. However, the metrics usage is in compliance with GDPR, AdMob respects the 'Non-Personalized Ads' flag and does not use any data for personalization. Please refer to this article about data handling and this article about Non-Personalized Ads for further information about Googles GDPR policies.

I do recommend however that you delay initialization as per our documentation until you have collected users consent in GDPR countries.

I will let you know when I have updates regarding the initialization ANRs.

Regards
 

[3C Tools]

Ok, but what about users outside the EU? They will have no choice but to suffer from data collection? 

Can I use EU consent worldwide?

Furthermore, I read here that app measurement starts on app starts regardless of Admob init? Is that correct?

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/admob$20disable$20data$20collected/google-admob-ads-sdk/ejLydgtQkao/CUs7knKDAQAJ

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

You are free to set non-personalized ads for all users regardless of their location if you choose.

Regarding App Measurement, it can be delayed to start after SDK initialization as per the documentation.

Regards
 

[Dharamveer Singh]

Thanks Everyone 

18/07/2020 2:36 am को "Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod" <mobileadssdk...@gmail.com> ने लिखा:

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