IAB TCF v2.0 errors detected, Error 3.3

[SD]

Hi Team,

We are getting the following error in my AdMob account. We are currently following this article https://support.google.com/admob/thread/160524489?hl=en, removed the old TC string and created a new one but we are still seeing the same Error 3.3 in the dashboard.

In our iOS application we are checking the user consent using UMPConsentInformation.sharedInstance.consentStatus

If the consent status is .required then we present the user with the consent form and if we already have the consent status then the consent status is .obtained and we show them the ads. As per our understanding when we remove the old TC string then the application will present the consent form to re obtain the consent from the user. What else do we have to do to fix this error 3.3 in the dashboard? 

Best regards,

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi SD,

You may want to check this HC Article which contains troubleshooting information for IAB TCF v2.0 errors.

Regards,

Teejay Wennie Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[AndreasB]

Teejay, you keep handing out that suggestion, yet the exact Google Help page you're linking to explicitly states as a solution to the problem that "CMP should delete the old TC string and reobtain consent."

If the consent management platform is Google's own UMP, which seems to be the case here and in many (if not most) of the other threads about this exact error, that makes it your problem to solve, and not something that individual developers using UMP should need to care about!

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Andreas,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us.

 

Can you confirm if you're able to encounter the same error that was mentioned on this thread? If yes, can you provide us privately more information below? You can provide the following details via Reply privately to author option or directly provide it to the link below.

 

• Publisher Id
• Details on the current platform and version being used.
• A minimal example demonstrating your UMP implementation.

 

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=5004Q00002g2O1SQAU&entry.80707362=00156796

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.

 

 

Regards,

Princess Pamela Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[AndreasB]

Pamela, this has nothing to do with my publisher ID or my implementation, so I'm not going to jump through the hoops of this canned response.

The very basic fact is that this is something to be solved by the consent management platform automatically, and quite easily so: if the CMP is initialized on app startup, and detects outdated TC data, it should delete that data and then act as if the consentStatus is required - because it really is. In most cases, this CMP is not some third-party tool that we should get help about elsewhere, but Google UMP aka Funding Choices, whatever the preferred term is at the moment. If every developer would need to take care about that manually and outside of Google UMP, then Google UMP simply is a failed solution that should not be used at all.

Linking to a HC article that just describes those errors, as Teejay did above, is not helpful.

Suggesting to manually reset consent state, as Teejay did in this thread, only to be later corrected by you because this is something only to be done in testing, is not helpful.

Not understanding the issue at all, as Nick and probably others of your team did in this thread for months(!), before eventually suggesting (again!) that developers should fix manually what needs to be done automatically by your stuff, is not helpful.

What would actually be helpful is to close your Google doc with canned responses to paste into every thread for a while, and really try to listen to people explaining to you what is going on with your products - because they simply don't work as expected some of the time. This is the case with your CMP not automatically reacquiring consent whenever necessary, but also with other stuff regarding your CMP solution that has been discussed in this group for as long as your CMP solution has existed.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi AndreasB,

Teejay Here. Allow me to assist you once more on your concern.

I do understand what you're feeling right now and I would like to request your patience on this. The team provides a series of solution/suggestion to check and in order to validate if there's a miss on publisher's end. Our team also request some information with the following reason

• Publisher/App ID - in order for us to validate if there's an issue which only occurs when using our App ID. This is also reported to us wherein some publisher's wasn't able to load any ads or to get any consent status using their own App ID
• Sample app - In order for us to have full visibility with your implementation. We check the following
  • UMP sdk implementation
  • AdMob SDK - versions, initialization
  • Is there a mediation adapter included
  • Environment version (simulator, API version, Android Studio version) 

Kindly note that we always do strive to improve our support and all issues reported by publishers were taken diligently. In order for me to investigate this further, please provide the information requested by my colleague, Princess, on this thread (via reply privately to author option or the steps provided on this thread). Once provided, I'll be raising this (including the reports and discussion thus far) to the rest of the team to get their insight and to deliver a decisive resolution to this concern.

Regards,

Teejay Wennie Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[SD]

Hello team,

Thank you for your help and your time, I have read well the examples of errors and how they can be solved before I put my problem here on Google Groups, and I have tried many solutions, but to no avail.

I have attached two pictures, one to solve the problem, (from the Google article), and the other two pictures are from my account, one showing that I made a new privacy message GDPR popup message on November 16, and the other picture shows that I RE-PROMPT.

 

However, the problem message in my Admob account is still there. If you have a solution, please tell me what I should do.

I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Best regards,

SD

[Andreas]

SD,

quite frankly, you're somewhat out of luck, because Google UMP is absurdly limited in what it actually does. It is very clearly stated that it is a requirement of the consent management platform (CMP) to deal with this by automatically "re-prompting" at least every 13 months. If Google UMP doesn't do that, and can't even be forced to do so using your workaround, then this is a clear bug of Google UMP.

If you really want to go down that route, what you can do is to check the "created" or "last updated" timestamp in the so-called "core string" manually, and delete that string from storage if the timestamp is too old. This will lead to the consent dialog being shown to users the next time they start the app. Obviously, this will only work with an app update, so isn't really ideal.

Assuming Android, here's a Kotlin function that should do the trick. iOS should work similarly: Kotlin example

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Andreas,

Thank you for sharing your insight to the community. This will greatly help other publishers.

@SD, you may try the suggestion provided by Andreas. If the issue still persists, please do let me know so I could flag this to the team for further investigation.