How can i tell if a user has consented to personalised ads in a flutter implementation of the UMP SDK?

[Alex Cretney]

Hello there, 

I'm a relatively novice developer working on my first app which is almost ready for release.

I am currently implementing the UMP SDK in order to provide a GDPR consent form to my users. 

When a user submits the form, then i can call the getConsentStatus() method to receive ConsentStatus.obtained

My question his.. how can i see the details of that consent to see if they've approved personalised ads or not?

When creating an AdRequest there is a 'nonPersonalisedAds' property. I assume this is provided for me to enable under circumstances where a user has rejected personalised ads... 

I just have no idea how to tell if they've rejected personalised ads because the most information i seem to be able to get from the SDK is ConsentStatus.obtained

Further to the above... If the user rejects both personalised and non-personalised ads, how would i know that? I would want to heavily restrict or even deny them access to the app in this circumstance given im wholely dependant on ad revenue, not only for profits but also to fund infrastructure and API costs!  

[Test Dvd]

Hello Alex,

Are you creating your app in Flutter ?

[Alex Cretney]

Hi there. Yes i am. Sorry i should have specified

[Test Dvd]

OK thank you for answering.

We are all the same in these groups.

If consent is not accepted, there will be no ads.
They will answer the typical message that they say to everyone.

We are all going to lose from 16/1.

[Alex Cretney]

Indeed. I would hope google is smart enough to understand that 

A) Creating and maintaining an app represents significant overhead for developers

B) Advertising is sometimes our only means of monetisation 

... If revenue (B) doesn't exceed costs (A) then the industry dies and they lose their market 

It would be really odd to turn on the TV or radio and be asked.. "would you like to opt out of ads?". Errr.... well if you're offering... 

[Test Dvd]

Everyone will be able to use our apps completely free from then on.

It is something that is not understood.

It is so difficult to put 3 options: 1) Consent and personalized ads 2) Non-consent and non-personalized ads and 3) Options.

Are they really not going to do it?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Alex,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

Identifying if a user has provided consent can be retrieved with the following:

• Android:
  • NOT_REQUIRED    User consent not required.
  • OBTAINED    User consent obtained.
  • REQUIRED    User consent required but not yet obtained.
  • UNKNOWN    Consent status is unknown.
• iOS:
  • UMPConsentStatusUnknown
  • UMPConsentStatusRequired
  • UMPConsentStatusNotRequired
  • UMPConsentStatusObtained

The SDK does not give a return value for each specific consent given by the user, only if the user has been prompted and responded to the consent screen. The only way to retrieve what the user has consented is through the TC string. You can read more in this document: https://support.google.com/admob/answer/9760862.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2oioP0:ref"

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

With regard to your concern for the consent, if you've followed the documentation at https://developers.google.com/admob/flutter/eu-consent, you can try to use the Forward consent to the Google Mobile Ads SDK (https://developers.google.com/admob/flutter/eu-consent#forward_consent_to_the_google_mobile_ads_sdk) to still get non-personalized ads. As mentioned on the documentation, the default behavior of the Google Mobile Ads SDK is to serve personalized ads. If a user has consented to receive only non-personalized ads, you can configure an AdRequest object with the following code to specify that only non-personalized ads should be requested. Let us know if you have any other concerns. 

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2oiqiV:ref"

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team

[Alex Cretney]

Hi again, 

Thanks for the quick response. 

The big issue we have is that ‘obtained’ means absolutely nothing to us as developers. We absolutely MUST know what level of permission the user has granted. As Test Dvd indicates above… the below is really the only distinction we need to understand (not to mention this would be a MUCH better and more understandable system for the end user) 

* Consent to personalised ads

* Consent to non-personalised ads

To have a 3rd option ‘No consent to any ads at all’ is completely unacceptable to us as developers because we cannot afford to support users on our apps with no means of monetising them. Every user comes with a cost to us so if they don’t consent to ads, we MUST have the right to deny them access to our apps to protect ourselves from bankruptcy! 

This is nothing unusual, it’s exactly the same unwritten contract we have in every other walk of life! If you don’t want to see ads, then dont watch YouTube videos, dont listen to the radio, pay a higher subscription fee etc…

My understanding from the first answer above is that we CAN get the specifics of their consent from something called a ‘TC String’ - However reading the linked article is seems that…

A) You don’t actually provide a TC string yet and won’t do until ‘the IAB fully transitions from TCF v1.1 and v2.0? Do you know when that would be? 

B) If a user does not provide consent to ’Store and/or access information on a device’ there will be no TC string anyway meaning we still will have no idea what level of consent they have provided.

Do I have that correct? 

If so, then I guess the answer is to

A) Wait for the TC string mechanism to be implemented 

B) Reject users from our apps whenever we can’t find a TC string on their local device…

I would point out the whole end user flow of downloading an app, denying permissions and then being ejected from the app as a consequence is absolutely abysmal user experience and this whole new process which some beurocrat seems to think is a good idea is adding zero value. 

Easy solution: 

1) Developers can stipulate that consent to non-targeted ads is pre-condition of downloading our app in the first place. 

2) Users can select if they’re happy to accept personalised ads when they open the app. This is the only question they should be asked

Ask anyone in the world, developer and end-user alike and they wouldn’t want it to be any more complicated than this… There’s seems to be some agenda to complicate things beyond recognition whereas all people want is to engage with each other in real language. 

Apologies if i sound frustrated but it seems like the developer community is under attack. I only got into this because my old industry was under attack 

[Test Dvd]

The problem is that, in the Google Ads documentation it says that the default ads are personalized ones, when it should be the other way around.

So you could do what you say, by default show non-personalized ads and if the user agrees, give their consent to show personalized ones.

Yes, it's NOT THAT DIFFICULT. It's what all the developers are asking for in hundreds of threads.

Why do they want to end us?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

We will have to share this to the wider team to provide assistance on this. Rest assured that one of our team will reach out to you.

[Alex Cretney]

Thanks very much. 

This is an absolutely massive issue. 

I feel like if you are going to prevent developers from monetising their apps with ads, then this needs to be declared as official google policy. This really needs to be considered at a decision making level within google. 

If the development community are 100% clear that this is the way google are going, we can at least all look for alternative careers because app development will no longer be tenable. 

Thanks again for your consideration, ill wait on further communication.

Kind regards

Alex

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

@Test Dvd

Non-personalized cannot be shown by default because consent must be granted to show non-personalized ads, specifically, consent to Purpose 1.

Per our help center article in regards to non-personalized ads, "Although non-personalized ads don’t use cookies or mobile ad identifiers for ad targeting, they do still use cookies or mobile ad identifiers for frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting, and to combat fraud and abuse. Therefore, you must obtain consent to use cookies or mobile ad identifiers for those purposes where legally required, per the ePrivacy Directive in certain EEA countries."

As for determining what the user consented to, such as personalized Google ads, you can read consent choices from local storage following the TCF v2 spec. The `IABTCF_PurposeConsents` key indicates consent for each of the TCF purposes.

Thanks,
Justin

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[Test Dvd]

Hello Justin,

To show personalized ads, consent must also be given and there is an option that does this by default.

You could do the same with non-personalized ads, right?

Put 3 options on the menu:
1) Accept and show personalized ads
2) Do not accept and show non-personalized ads
3) Manage options

Thank you.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

@TestDvd

I will share the feedback of wanting more options such as main screen controls on the GDPR form. To set expectations though, there is a team of folks who have been monitoring this and there are probably good reasons why the current solutions are the way they are. For example, for ad free version, that used to be an option on the legacy consent SDK (https://github.com/googleads/googleads-consent-sdk-android) we had prior to TCF being a standard, but this was never made an option in the new form. My best guess is it's because we want the form to produce a TCF string output and a "pay for full version" option just skirts and avoids the consent question. You can always read the TCF string results and after the form is presented, insert your own option to pay for full version afterwards. We plan to add documentation on https://developers.google.com/admob/ios/privacy/gdpr soon to explain a bit how to read these results.

[Test Dvd]

Hello, thanks for answering,

Do you mean that there won't be an option for users to easily choose the option to have non-personalized ads?

For the personalized ads option if any, accepting consent.

As Alex says, I think it should be made easy for the user.

Thank you.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

@Test Dvd

As of right now there not an easy way to select non-personalized ads. In regards to that, we are actively looking into ways to make the process to consent for non-personalized ads easier for users and publishers. 

[Test Dvd]

Hello, thanks for answering,

Excellent !

I hope you can find a solution so that users can choose non-personalized ads in a simple way.

For example, by pressing a button, just like in the personalized ads option.

Thank you.

[Batuhan Savaş Yılmaz]

Hi Justin, I think you forgot which company you work for and gave us the answer "no easy way". You are talking about Google. 1 of the 3 companies that come to mind when you think of software. You only change the name and function of the decline button. The decline button will say "Use Non-Personalized Ads" and when the user presses that button, it will use non-personalized ads. If it is too difficult, give the admin password and we will do it.

13 Eylül 2023 Çarşamba tarihinde saat 12:00:54 UTC+3 itibarıyla Test Dvd şunları yazdı:

[P. S.]

I'm in the same situation with my Flutter apps. I think about showing the user a white screen with the option to adjust their consent settings if the ads cannot be loaded. Or maybe paywall to use the app without ads. It would only be desirable for the UMP SDK to provide more information than OBTAINED. What was obtained in detail? I hope we get help from Google soon.

[Batuhan Savaş Yılmaz]

Try this: edit GPDR via admob and turn off "do not allow" and "turn off (confirm)" from the options on the right side and test if the ads are shown in any case. I don't have my computer with me right now, I can't. let me know the result.

14 Eylül 2023 Perşembe tarihinde saat 08:51:53 UTC+3 itibarıyla P. S. şunları yazdı:

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

@P.S.

The OBTAINED state means the user has selected a consent choice from the consent form that is presented to them on screen. For example, if the user selects Do not consent or consent they will be on the OBTAINED. 

@Batuhan 

Not entirely sure what you mean but the message configuration screen in the AdMob UI helps you decide what consent options to provide your user. There are multiple options to choose from but choosing one option compared to another options doesn't affect the testing of ads. 

[Batuhan Savaş Yılmaz]

THANKS JUSTIN

14 Eylül 2023 Perşembe tarihinde saat 12:43:03 UTC+3 itibarıyla Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor şunları yazdı:

[Batuhan Savaş Yılmaz]

I'd like to ask an off-topic question, Justin : If we add a button to our applications and when the user clicks on that button, the user only displays adverts and the reason for this is to support us, is it a policy violation?

14 Eylül 2023 Perşembe tarihinde saat 13:54:45 UTC+3 itibarıyla Batuhan Savaş Yılmaz şunları yazdı:

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

You should only be gathering consent from a Google-certified CMP; a custom button would not be considered a valid way of gathering consent. 

[Batuhan Savaş Yılmaz]

No, you didn't understand me. What I meant to say was that it's off-topic. It's not about GPDR. If we use a button in our app only for users to watch adverts (like donate) . Does this violate the policy?

14 Eylül 2023 Perşembe tarihinde saat 14:03:02 UTC+3 itibarıyla Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor şunları yazdı:

[Lisitso]

Still waiting for the reply to the user question:

>> "My question his.. how can i see the details of that consent to see if they've approved personalised ads or not?"

Any chance to get the information from the offical source?

Thanks.

L.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for contacting the Mobile Ads SDK Support team.

I will check with our team regarding your query and one of my team members will reach out to you once we have an update on this. Meanwhile, your patience is highly appreciated.  

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02oioP0:ref"

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

To see what consent choices the user has consented to, you have to write code in the Android/iOS layer. Take a look at How to read consent choices for Android /iOS to see how to achieve. Also see Ad serving modes to note what consent choices requirements align what with ad serving mode, such as non-personalized ads. 

Thanks,
???????Justin

ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02oioP0:ref