Which personal data is AdMob exactly using (from the technical point of view)?

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Bevor

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May 5, 2018, 9:30:52 AM5/5/18
to Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers
To be GDPR compliant, I need to inform the user in my data privacy policy about the personal data which is processed by AdMob.

On websites, you can control your data like age or gender by https://adssettings.google.com/.
In apps, you can't control this data. There is only the choice between personalized and non-personalized ads (Google settings app).

The information from here is not very helpful, because it doesn't explain which personal data is used:

https://support.google.com/admob/answer/7676680
Google considers ads to be personalized when they are based on previously collected or historical data to determine or influence ad selection, including a user's previous search queries, activity, visits to sites or apps, demographic information, or location. Specifically, this would include, for example: demographic targeting, interest category targeting, remarketing, targeting Customer Match lists, and targeting audience lists uploaded in DoubleClick Bid Manager or Campaign Manager.

I somewhere read that the "advertising ID" is used in apps to control the behaviour, but I doubt that the "advertising ID" can handle all this mentioned data (like location), so what data is exactly used in AdMob which is considered personal data?

mobileadssdk-a...@google.com

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May 7, 2018, 1:45:34 PM5/7/18
to Bevor, Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers
Hi,

For more details about the information used and Googles EU consent policy, please refer to the updated EU consent policy and associated help page.

The linked article regarding personalized and non-personalized ads provides the details of which data is used in the two different scenarios. The data is used for ad serving. 

Regards

Sam

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Bevor

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May 7, 2018, 2:11:40 PM5/7/18
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Hi,

your link is exactly the text I posted in my question. But this is too broad which does not comply with the information we have to quote in the data privacy policy.
"activity" -> what is this? An information saved in a cookie?
"visits to sites or apps" -> A cookie again?
search queries -> this is clear
"demographic information"? -> what does that mean? Is this a cookie, is this the age of the user, is this the user's children count,...?
"location" -> clear

And what is with this advertising ID? (I'm sure I read this anywhere)

mobileadssdk-a...@google.com

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May 7, 2018, 2:28:54 PM5/7/18
to Bevor, Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers

Hi,

Correct, the article you linked has the most relevant information you are asking for, as per the quoted content:

Google considers ads to be personalized when they are based on previously collected or historical data to determine or influence ad selection, including a user's previous search queries, activity, visits to sites or apps, demographic information, or location. Specifically, this would include, for example: demographic targeting, interest category targeting, remarketing, targeting Customer Match lists, and targeting audience lists uploaded in DoubleClick Bid Manager or Campaign Manager.

The users personal data as mentioned above is the sort of personal data you should mention. You are correct that the SDK uses cookies or mobile ad identifiers to identify a user and associate the ad requests that they make with their personal data that Google has. Information such as " a user's previous search queries, activity, visits to sites or apps, demographic information, or location" will not necessarily be accessed by the SDK directly. Instead it may be retrieved in the ad serving stack via some user ID such as their devices mobile ad identifier.

Here is some more information about ads personalization.

Regards

Sam
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Also find us on our blog and Google+ page:
    http://googleadsdeveloper.blogspot.com
    https://plus.google.com/115658573333388777174/
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Bevor

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May 7, 2018, 2:42:52 PM5/7/18
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On Monday, May 7, 2018 at 8:28:54 PM UTC+2, mobileadssdk-a...@google.com wrote:


Here is some more information about ads personalization.

Ok, this is more helpful, thanks.

Message has been deleted

mobileadssdk-a...@google.com

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May 14, 2018, 12:01:54 PM5/14/18
to Bevor, Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers
Hi,

For non-personalized advertising, Google's position is that 'legitimate interests' is an appropriate legal basis under the GDPR. However, consent must be obtained where legally required for the cookies—which includes mobile advertising IDs—that support such advertising, to satisfy the existing duties of the ePrivacy Directive.

All the relevant information for personalized versus non-personalized ads is contained in the article at https://support.google.com/admob/answer/7676680.

Quoting from the article:

Non-personalized ads are ads that are not based on a user’s past behavior. They are targeted using contextual information, including coarse (such as city-level) geo-targeting based on current location, and content on the current site or app or current query terms. Google disallows all personalized targeting, including demographic targeting and user list targeting. 

Regards

Sam 

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Also find us on our blog and Google+ page:
    http://googleadsdeveloper.blogspot.com
    https://plus.google.com/115658573333388777174/
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On 05/13/18 09:35:03 markus...@gmail.com wrote:
I still a question on this topic which is important to me. The page https://support.google.com/adsense/troubleshooter/1631343 says that "The way Google saves your ad settings has changed. Learn more about how Google uses cookies for ad personalization" -> leads to https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads?hl=en

Here is the text important for mobile apps:

Advertising identifiers for mobile apps

To serve ads in services where cookie technology may not be available (for example, in mobile applications), we may use technologies that perform similar functions to cookies. Sometimes Google links the identifier used for advertising on mobile applications to an advertising cookie on the same device in order to coordinate ads across your mobile apps and mobile browser. This can happen, for example, when you see an ad within an app that launches a web page in your mobile browser. This also helps us improve the reports we give to our advertisers on the effectiveness of their campaigns.

To opt out of personalized ads in apps on your mobile device, follow the instructions below.


My question is now: Is this cookie the only private data that will be processed in apps with AdMob?
Is the information about why one might sees an ad from here: https://support.google.com/adsense/troubleshooter/1631343 or here https://support.google.com/ads/answer/1634057?visit_id=1-636613127930809865-815640838&rd=1 obsolete?




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