GDPR consent message

[spyNet Camera]

GDPR consent message

I started to implement the consent as required, but found some issues.

Even if 'Do not consent' option is enabled, there is no way to get this choice, the SDK only defines:

public @interface ConsentStatus {
  int UNKNOWN = 0;
  int NOT_REQUIRED = 1;
  int REQUIRED = 2;
  int OBTAINED = 3;
}

If 'Manage options' is selected by the user, choices are not stored and the next time the form is shown, defaults values will be displayed instead.

Thanks

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

The ConsentInformation.ConsentStatus (https://developers.google.com/admob/android/privacy/api/reference/com/google/android/ump/ConsentInformation.ConsentStatus) only checks if user consent not required, user consent obtained, user consent required but not yet obtained, or consent status is unknown. The 'Do not consent' option will still be is still counted as consent obtained. Personalized vs non-personalized will be handled by the TC string.

You can read more information about the TC string and Consent policies in this document: https://support.google.com/admob/answer/9760862?hl=en&sjid=2418371235660772237-AP.

Feel free to reach back to us if you have any further concerns or inquiries.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2mpRTF:ref"

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team

[spyNet Camera]

Hello,

than you for your response.

I'm fine with the consent handled by the TC String, anyway I still have troubles with this SDK:

• As a user, I would expect options to be remember to be reviewed or changed later.
  Why should i go through that huge options list if not?
  
• By selecting 'Manage options', ads won't be served anymore.
  There are a lot of posts on this, the issue seams to be there for long time and nobody fixed it.
• The suggested integration has problem with screen rotation.

I'm sorry but it looks like this SDK is not ready for production. I hope it will be improved before we developers are forced to used it!

Regards

[Test Dvd]

Hello SpyNet Camera,

I don't think they do anything before it is mandatory to use the sdk.

The problem comes from years ago and has not been solved.

Why are they going to fix it now?

It seems that it's okay for them that people use the app for free, without ads, they don't give away their work...

[spyNet Camera]

Up to now it wasn't really mandatory to integrate that message and I din't.

But now they say that developers should do that before the end of the year....

Well, I don't intend to put my face adding this very bad implementation.

I hope fixes will arrive in time or will have to move to a different platform.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello everyone,

We do understand the frustration you're having with the SDK. The team is doing their best to enhance the SDK with every releases.

@Spynet,

Please see our responses below.

• As a user, I would expect my options to be remembered and accessible later for review and modification. With current implementation one has to start from scratch each time and this is bothering.
  • Could you please elaborate on what you mean by this?
• By selecting 'Manage options' ads are not server anymore. There are many posts on this issue and I'm very surprise is not fixed yet!
  • What error code were you getting when ads failed to load?
• The proposed implementation does not handle screen rotation correctly.
  • The UMP should automatically follow the screen rotation. Could you please provide to us a screen recording of the behavior that you've mentioned?

For the requested information, kindly provide  it to us via the steps below.
 

1. Navigate to

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkAiXMeYP-fw1W3Z-tT9uwmATEKO5X6S-th0gR2ezdKaaqfg/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.400550049=Mobile+Ads+SDK&entry.460850823=5004Q00002mpRTFQA2&entry.80707362=00186411

2. Fill out all fields, and attach your file(s).

3. Please reply back on this thread when you have uploaded your file(s). Please do not share this link.

[spyNet Camera]

Hello,

I have a couple of files to the link (sorry but you say 'please do not share this link' but it appears to be public on this group, am I wrong?).

• As a user, I would expect my options to be remembered and accessible later for review and modification. With current implementation one has to start from scratch each time and this is bothering.

• • Could you please elaborate on what you mean by this?

• • • In options.png (also included here for simplicity) you can see the list of options I'm talking about.
      By scrolling down the page, you'll find that the list is huge.
      If I go through the list, I can setup my preferences and then 'Confirm choices' to hopefully save them somewhere.
      Later, when using the app again, I may want to review my previous choices or change some of them.
      What I found is that default values are always shown instead. My choices are gone.
      If I had spent long time in selecting options, this would make me very sad!

• By selecting 'Manage options' ads are not server anymore. There are many posts on this issue and I'm very surprise is not fixed yet!

• • What error code were you getting when ads failed to load?

• • • If I select 'Manage options' > 'Accept all' ads will be served
    • If I select 'Manage option' > 'Confirm choices' (all default choices, no changes) I get Ad failed to load : 3

• The proposed implementation does not handle screen rotation correctly.

• • The UMP should automatically follow the screen rotation. Could you please provide to us a screen recording of the behavior that you've mentioned?

• • • The video rotation.webm that I sent shows the issue, but it is difficult to understand from there.
    • First of all, it is not consisten with DialogFragment. If you show any DialogFragmen like for example with
      AskForPermissionsDialogFragment dlg =
      AskForPermissionsDialogFragment.newInstance(message.toString());
      dlg.show(getSupportFragmentManager(), "fragment_permissions_rationale"); 
      the activity is not destroyed during rotation and the dialog does not need to be recreated each time.
      Instead, consentForm.show()  shows a dialog that will be disposed during the screen rotation and will call the OnConsentFormDismissedListener with error 3 "Activity is destroyed."
    • In the suggested code, loadForm() is called again, but this way it will create another dialog with MainActivity.this referencing the activity that is going to be destroyed.
      Sometimes the dialog shows up, sometimes no, anyway this is not correct.
      The next rotation the dialog will disappear.
      

I hope this is more clear and may help in having a stable SDK on time.

Regards,

Paolo

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Paolo,

Thank you for providing the requested information.

With regards to "Ad failed to load : 3", what are these default options that were selected? In order for ads to be served, the following criteria has to be met: 

Google will serve personalized ads when all of the following criteria are met:

• The end user grants Google consent to:
• Store and/or access information on a device (Purpose 1)
• Create a personalized ads profile (Purposes 3)
• Select personalized ads (Purposes 4)
• Legitimate interest (or consent, where a publisher configures their CMP to request it) is established for Google to:
• Select basic ads (Purpose 2)
• Measure ad performance (Purpose 7)
• Apply market research to generate audience insights (Purpose 9)
• Develop and improve products (Purpose 10)

If the consent requirements for personalized ads are not met, Google will serve non-personalized ads when all of the following criteria are met:

• The end user grants Google consent to:
• Store and/or access information on a device (Purpose 1)
• Legitimate interest (or consent, where a publisher configures their CMP to request it) is established for Google to:
• Select basic ads (Purpose 2)
• Measure ad performance (Purpose 7)
• Apply market research to generate audience insights (Purpose 9)
• Develop and improve products (Purpose 10)

More information in this article: https://support.google.com/admob/answer/9760862?hl=en&sjid=2418371235660772237-AP.

For us to investigate your other concerns, would it be possible to provide us the sample app project that was shown in the screen recording you provided? You can provide the following details via reply privately to author option or directly provide it to the link below.

If the file(s) you are looking to share are less than 25mb in total you can attach them to this case on your next reply. If you are having trouble attaching your file to this case or if your file(s) are larger than 25mb, you can share your files with me by performing the following steps:

[Test Dvd]

hello spynet,

They are telling you the same thing as always in all the posts.

Come on, no solution to the issue of non-personalized ads not being displayed when the user enters manage options.

With how easy it would be to answer clearly and not always paste the same paragraph that no one understands...

[spyNet Camera]

Hello,

Regarding 'default options' I mean the ones that come with the consent message from the SDK.

I just tapped on the 'Manage options' button, then on 'Confirm choices', nothing else.

Regarding personalized or non-personalized ads, it would be okay for me to have ONLY non-personalized ads and showing no consent message.. wouldn't it be simpler? The problem is that ads are not served at all and this is not acceptable, or there will be a very simple way to use the app while hiding ads.

I uploaded the apk with the consent message implementation, you can explore logcat if this could help. Please do not share, it is not ready for production.

I have also uploaded the code for the activity that shows the consent message, also attached to this message,

Regards,

Paolo

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

If you want to show only non-personalized ads, user has to opt in to Purpose 1 (store and/or access information on a device) (where legally required), from this article (https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/9005435?hl=en#:~:text=Although%20non%2Dpersonalized%20ads%20don,to%20combat%20fraud%20and%20abuse). It mentioned that , 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. See also the documentation on consent for cookies (https://developers.google.com/admob/ios/global-settings#consent_for_cookies_settings) for more information on non-personalized ads vs. limited ads. We also checked your app and was able to show ads in our end.

In addition to that, as per this article (https://support.google.com/admob/answer/13554020?hl=en&sjid=15596233312479031844-AP), publishers and developers using Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob who serve ads to users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and/or the UK will be required to use a Google-certified CMP that integrates with the TCF when serving ads to users in the European Economic Area or the UK.

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2mpRTF:ref"

[spyNet Camera]

Hello,

thank you for checking.

Unfortunately I can't replicate your results here... is there somebody in the community who may help verifying the implementation?

I can provide the beta version apk.

Regards

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

Can you confirm if the APK you've provided is not configured as force geography (https://developers.google.com/admob/android/privacy#force_a_geography)? Asking this as we're unable to show consent in our end. If yes, can you try to force geography so we can check the behavior you're seeing? You can provide us your updated APK or sample app project so we can further check this in our end.

If the file(s) you are looking to share are less than 25mb in total you can attach them to this case on your next reply. If you are having trouble attaching your file to this case or if your file(s) are larger than 25mb, you can share your files with me by performing the following steps:

1. Navigate to https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkAiXMeYP-fw1W3Z-tT9uwmATEKO5X6S-th0gR2ezdKaaqfg/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.400550049=Mobile+Ads+SDK&entry.460850823=5004Q00002mpRTFQA2&entry.80707362=00186411

2. Fill out all fields, and attach your file(s).

3. Please reply back on this thread when you have uploaded your file(s). Please do not share this link.

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2mpRTF:ref"

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team

 

[spyNet Camera]

Hello,

I uploaded a new apk with the forced geography, so that you can try outside Europe.

This version is calling:

ConsentDebugSettings debugSettings = new ConsentDebugSettings.Builder(this)
            .setDebugGeography(ConsentDebugSettings.DebugGeography.DEBUG_GEOGRAPHY_EEA)
            .build();
builder.setConsentDebugSettings(debugSettings);

and also:
mConsentInformation = UserMessagingPlatform.getConsentInformation(this);
mConsentInformation.reset();

to display the message all the time.

Please let me know if this works for you or needs changes.

Regards.

[spyNet Camera]

Hello,

to avoid misunderstandings regarding the issue "user choices are non persistent", I have removed

mConsentInformation.reset();

and made the consent dialog always showing up with

if (status == ConsentInformation.ConsentStatus.REQUIRED || true) {
  consentForm.show(...);
} 

I have just uploaded the StartupActivity code and the new apk on the link above.

Thanks!

[Eric Lund]

Hi,

I would just like to add that I also cannot serve ads if I click on the "Manage options" button in the GDPR IAB prompt. As soon as I update my preferences with "Consent" (vs "Manage Options") ads load as they should. I am not sure if this issue is isolated to the test ad unit IDs or if they would fail to load with production IDs as well. Here is the error from the delegate callback:

Error Domain=com.google.admob Code=1 "Request Error: No ad to show." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Request Error: No ad to show., gad_response_info=  ** Response Info **

    Response ID: I9W9ZOKJGfP4n88PqKCjmAo

    Network: (null)

  ** Loaded Adapter Response **

    (null)

  ** Extras Dictionary **

    {

        "mediation_group_name" = Campaign;

    }

  ** Mediation line items **

}

[Eric Lund]

To follow up on my previous post:

The issue only applies when the debug geography settings are set to EEA:

debugSettings.geography = UMPDebugGeography.EEA

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Spynet,

Would you able to share to us a test project instead? This will greatly help us in our investigation as it will enable us to have full visibility on your implementation.

@Eric,

Kindly share to us a sample project as well, so we could check.

You may provide it to us via the steps below.

[Gicci]

This has been explained many times, and there are also the rules behind this listed in this same conversation, here https://groups.google.com/g/google-admob-ads-sdk/c/Q8J0HAi9zks/m/vhmH-Q31AQAJ

From the practical point of view:

• The user directly selects "Consent" or selects "Manage options" and then "Accept all" -> Personalized ads are shown
• The user selects "Manage options" and then "Confirm choices" without touching anything -> No ads are shown
• The user selects "Manage options", provide consent to "Store and/or access information on a device", then scrolls down, selects "Vendor preferences", finds "Google Advertising Product" in an endless list of providers, provides consent to it and then presses "Confirm choices" -> Non-personalized ads are shown

In practice, using this CMP it is currently impossible to show Non-personalized ads and it very easy to deny the permission to show all the ads.

I suggest to detect this situation, you can Google for sample code that looks in the TCF preferences to check this, and ask the user to repeat the process providing the consent to show ads or to buy an ads-free version of the app.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Gicci,

Thank you for sharing your insight with regard to the GDPR consent. You may also check this article (https://support.google.com/admob/answer/9760862?hl=en&sjid=2418371235660772237-AP) for more information. If you have any other concern, kindly let us know by creating a new thread for it so we can further assist you. 

[spyNet Camera]

Yes, I can confirm everything, this is exactly what I see on my side.

But I think users are already too pissed off to be forced to continuously click on useless and stupid posts, to add even more!

I still hope that SDK guys can fix this at some point, before we all will be forced to integrate the CMP.

 

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[spyNet Camera]

I'm sorry but I cannot share the complete project.

Regarding creating a sample project, I think it's also not possible because to link the CMP the app has to be published, approved and connected to the AdMob account as I know.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello everyone,

Allow me to raise this (including the reports and discussion thus far) to a wider team to get their insight as well. I'll update this thread the soonest I hear back from them.

[peter]

also dear google team,

suggest that if load request update and load form, 2 calls, are the very usual routine, can you combine it to 1

providing that I am flutter side 

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[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

SpyNet,

Thank you for reaching out. This is a long thread so allow me to enumerate the concerns to make sure I do not miss anything:

1. You are implementing the UMP consent SDK.
2. When using the UMP consent form you are pressing "Confirm Choices" without selecting "Accept All".
3. You are receiving a "No Fill." when making ad requests.
4. You were expecting that you received non-personalized ads in this case and not "No Fill".
5. You would prefer if the default options for the consent form had a pre-populated selection to prevent this issue.

Is this correct?

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2mpRTF:ref

[spyNet Camera]

Hello,

yes, that's correct, except item 5

5.1 There should be no way to make ads non showing, I should always receive personalized or non personalized ads, or most users will definitely disable ads at some point

5.2 If I make some choices by changing the default options, I would expect to get them back if I show the form again  

Thanks.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

Thank you for providing that information. To comment on your first point of the choices not being stored, what you are observing is the expected behavior. The HTML that is being is presented in the web view is the exact same every time the form is loaded. As far as non-personalized ads, users still have to consent to Purpose 1 (Store and/or access information a device) to receive non-personalized ads. Otherwise they will receive "limited ads" which in some cases may return a "No fill" because there is no ad to show inherently because ads are limited. It is also possible to receive a "No fill" when consenting to non-personalized ads. 

Thanks,
Justin

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2mpRTF:ref

[spyNet Camera]

Hello,

I made some experiment but always get error 3 when manually set the options other than using select all.

How can I check that required conditions meet? I am using com.iabtcf:iabtcf-decoder:2.0.10 to decode the string.

Thanks you

[ABQ App Source]

We have been posting these exact same issues for years (take a look at some of the other threads). The summary is:

• They refuse to acknowledge that selecting the users prior consent choices when the user reloads the dialog is different from pre-populating consent choices that the user did not select. So the form is always blank when it is reloaded - this seems like a choice made by an overly cautious lawyer, not a user interface designer. I doubt this will be changed any time soon, and IMHO this is the least pressing issue with the CMP.
• The only way to show non-personalized ads it to select the storage consent (Purpose 1) on the second screen AND select "Google Advertising Products" in the giant non-alphabetical vendor list on the third screen. If you just select storage consent, and skip the second step (or do literally anything else on those screens), no ads will be shown.
• "Limited Ads" do not actually work with AdMob, and may or may not work with some mediation partners. If you don't have mediation, you will not see any "Limited Ads". If you do - you might, but the fill rate will probably be low.

We have requested in the other threads an additional option on the main screen for "Consent to Non-Personalized Ads" (or an "Only Necessary" option like many web pages have)  to help users navigate this, and to remove the "Consent to None" button (which is NOT required by the TCF policy). Even so it would still be possible for them to disable ads by going to manage options and not picking anything. Then you are left to decide how to handle that, but you can at least read the TCF string to detect when that happens. To make this kind of guard feasible for an end-user, it must be as easy for them to consent to Non-Personalized ads as it is to consent to Personalized ads in the CMP.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65351543/how-to-implement-ump-sdk-correctly-for-eu-consent/68310602#68310602

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/69307205/mandatory-consent-for-admob-user-messaging-platform/70324431#70324431

-TV

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

Thank you for that information. What options are you manually selecting? And what conditions are you trying to meet? 

For example, after GDPR consent has been collected, 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.

[spyNet Camera]

@ABQ App Source, thank you for sharing that information!

The post at link

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/69307205/mandatory-consent-for-admob-user-messaging-platform/70324431#70324431

exactly expresses my thoughts about this discussion.

I also think that this approach will lead to a very poor user experience, that will lead to upset users blaming developers and not Google.

Going deeply into the UMP specs is not what I want to do, I would prefer to use my time to maintain and improve the app instead.

At least, the UMP SDK should expose a simple property to allow checking what kind of ads will be served: personalized, non-personalized or none.

Searching into the strings seems not to be something stable over the time since those details may change quickly and with no advise.

I agree that all this stuff is probably something coming from lawyers, not devs.

I will resist as long as I can without implementing UMP.

Regards.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

@SpyNet

The spec is provided from IAB, not the UMP SDK. IAB is an industry-standard framework that applies to all Google certified consent management platforms. 

In regards to exposing a property related to the ad serving mode, this is something we are actively looking into. In the meantime, we recently added a section to our doc with code examples for how to read consent choices. 

[Attila Orosz]

Hi,

I'd like to clarify something. As other have commented, it is, apparently, not currently enough to consent to Purpose 1 when user chooses "Manage options"  but they need to go down to "Vendor preferences", find the vendor named "Google Advertising Products" from a very long, non-alphabetical list of vendors and grant explicit consent for non-personalised ads to be served.

Since you've never mentioned this in your responses, or replied to anyone mentioning it (about this explicitly), I need to ask directly:

Q1: Is this correct? Do we need to grant explicit consent for the "Google Advertising Products" vendor, or is Legitimate interest (currently the default setting) enough for non-personalised ads to work?

If your answer to Q1 is "yes", I have a few more questions, basically about what are Google's plans to do about this situation that does not serve anyone's interest (not even Google's, f you think about it):

Q2: As someone already asked, would it be possible to make the option "Consent only to necessary" as we see on some webpages? It could take care of minimal necessary consents including the "Google Advertising Products" vendor. This would be ideal.

Q3: If Q2 is not feasible for any reasons (being against regulations is the only real reason, really, but nothing seems to indicate that), Would it be at east possible to move "Google Advertising Products" vendor to the top of the list? Currently it's 17.5 miles down, and very difficult to find, making it virtually impossible for anyone to grant explicit consent and therefore opt for non-personalised ads, if that is what they really want to do. Since the list does not seem to be in any particular order, I see no reason why this could not be done, but...

Q4: If that list is, for some reason, too difficult to modify, what exactly are Google's plans to solve this situation?

If the answer for Q1 is "no, don't worry, legitimate interest is quite enough there", then please disregard questions 2-4. :)

Thanks for taking the time to clarify these, in advance.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

When manually selecting consent choices in "manage options", vendor consent must be explicit. The "manage options" screen with all of the vendors is not something the Google Mobile Ads SDK or UMP SDK controls. However, I have filed a feature request to the engineering team to explore options to improve the user experience. 

Thanks,
Justin

ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02mpRTF:ref

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

Thank you for your suggestions. The entire dialog is something that the Google Mobile Ads SDK or UMP SDK does not control. It is a URL that is loaded and displayed in a web view.

For the vendor list, you can configure which vendors to show (in the AdMob UI), but there's no control to determine ordering or any other functionality within that dialog. However, the UX team has been CC'd on the feature request for visibility's sake. 

[Attila Orosz]

Thank you for the clarification. 

Might I suggest a very simple solution?

A "Consent to only necessary" or "Consent to non-personalised" or similarly worded button on the main screen would make things a lot easier for everyone. (It would have to flip two switches, literally.)

Alternatively, moving the Goggle Ads vendor to the top of the vendor list would still make things a lot more manageable.

Thanks again for the fast reply and the clarification, and special thanks for the feature request. :)

Best,

AO

[Attila Orosz]

I understand, thanks. I guess only showing the one vendor might be a temporary trade-off, although a less than optiomal one. 

Since the UX team is now on board (Hi, UX team!) I'd like to recap the biggest problem with the current setup:

It's very-very difficult for anyone to opt for non-personalised ads in a meaningful way, the only (real) choices virtually being all, or nothing.

Might I ask, who controls what exactly gets displayed? I wouldn't mind bothering them too, for everyone's benefit. :)

[Attila Orosz]

Looks like my posts via email showed up late. To anyone confused about the order, Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor was replying to my last two posts, but the replies appear above me....

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Attila, 

They've been CC'd on the feature request which was filed internally. An internal team outside the scope of the Google Mobile Ads SDK controls the UI/UX and they are aware of yours/others feedback. It is always appreciated.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

The UMP SDK is able to automatically detect if the GDPR consent form is required or not. You may not publish in the EU/EEA/UK but you may have users in that region. If a user in not required to be presented with the GDPR form they will not have a TC string. 

[Attila Orosz]

Hi, 

I have another question about the GDPR check. What happens if I don't publish in EU/EEA/UK. Do I still need to manually verify that the GDPR consent does not apply?

Currently, if I understand correctly, the SDK would return with something like consent is no needed in that case.

So what happens to the user outside of GDPR territory, if there is no consent string, or active check performed?

(Basically asking if I need to push an update to every territory, or am I good to do a quick one just for the countries in question.)

Thanks. :)

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

The UMP SDK and the Google Mobile Ads SDK are separate entities. If the user is not in a region that requires consent, they will not have a TC string but that will have no effect for users not in the EEA/UK. The Google Mobile Ads SDK will be able to detect this and serve the appropriate ad. 

For an error during initial consent gathering, it depends on the type of error returned and if you are using the CanRequestAds API. It's possible the error may be due to network conditions where location cannot be determined as well. In that case network conditions would affect ad loading as well. That being said, the Google Mobile Ads SDK is expected to return an appropriate ad based on location and if the TC string is needed for an ad request.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

This all depends on the location of the user and if they have previously consented or not. To reiterate, you should be calling requestConsentInfoUpdate() on every app launch. If the user happens to be in a location that doesn't requires consent, the Google Mobile Ads SDK will return an appropriate ad. If the user is in a region such as the EEA or UK, limited ads will be served if no TC string is present.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello,

For this scenario the Google Mobile Ads SDK will continue to return an appropriate ad as it normally would. 

[Attila Orosz]

Thanks for the reply. To be more specific, I'm more interested in what happens when for example a user outside of the EU/EEA/UK does not update the app (consent is not yet implemented).

If  `requestConsentInfoUpdate()` is never called, what will the SDK do, if the user is not in the EU/EEA/UK? Will they be able to see ads, or is it absolutely mandatory to check this manually?



Related question: If there's an error during the initial consent info update check, for a user outside of EU/EEA/UK, what would I expect to happen?



So basically, will the SDK be able to detect if an ad request came from outside the EU without me manually checking this? (My app has no location access.)


[Attila Orosz]

Thanks.

So, basically, you are saying that even without manually calling `requestConsentInfoUpdate()`, Google Mobile Ads SDK will recognise the regionand that TC string is not needed, and it's all gonna be fine, is that correct? (Just to make sure I understood it right.)

You're right about network conditions affecting ads/location, BUT, if the network has a temporary lag, or the user moves around or  changes networks (connects to Wifi hotspot, whatever), ad loading might work better later on (since I would only check for consent once, but might load ads any number of times afterwards, depending on the setup).

But then it's all OK, I guess, if I got your response right.

[Attila Orosz]

Yeah, that was clear already. To clarify I am very specifically interested in the theoretical (and very specific) scenario where, for any reason:

- User has NOT previously consented

- User is NOT in a region such as EU/EEA or UK,

- requestConsentInfoUpdate() does NOT get called (doesn't really matter why, can be for any reason, maybe the user has an older version of the app, where this was not implemented, etc.. Let's just assume, it's not called)

What will the Google Mobile Ads SDK serve in that case?

Thanks