Questions about UMP and GDPR

[Poing Studios]

Hello, i have some questions about UMP and GDPR:

1. When I click on "Do not Consent", the application stops loading ads, was this supposed to happen? 

2. How to know if the user is in the EEA to be able to load the UMP? 

3. If the user is in the EEA, clicks the "Consent" button and then exits the EEA, is the information he has consented to still stored? Was this supposed to happen?

[Poing Studios]

4. How to use IAB TCF v2.0? https://support.google.com/admob/answer/9760862?hl=en&ref_topic=9756841 is UMP already using it?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Poing,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

Let me answer your questions below.

1. When I click on "Do not Consent", the application stops loading ads, was this supposed to happen? 

• If you click do not consent, the ads that will return will be non personalized ads and the ads will be based on what is available in the ad inventory and sometimes it will be limited. Most likely you will encounter no fill error.

2. How to know if the user is in the EEA to be able to load the UMP? 

• You can use the present form if required, following this guide which helps you show only the form if the user is in EEA.

3. If the user is in the EEA, clicks the "Consent" button and then exits the EEA, is the information he has consented to still stored? Was this supposed to happen?

• With regard to this, it is a best practice to load a form every time the user launches your app, even if you determine consent is not required, so that the form is ready to display in case the user wishes to change their consent setting.

4. How to use IAB TCF v2.0? https://support.google.com/admob/answer/9760862?hl=en&ref_topic=9756841 is UMP already using it?

•  As a publisher, you are not required to use the IAB TCF v2.0. You can continue to use other means to comply with our EU User Consent policy like using UMP. As per checking, the UMP is already using it.

Regards,

Princess Pamela Pineda Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Poing Studios]

Thank you for quickly reply, i have some more questions:

5. You said "Most likely you will encounter no fill error.".

But is this really to happen with Test Ids? Wasn't the ideal always to have ads to display and should always have inventory available? And what to do when you can't load ads? 

6. They didn't consent because of the error code 3, this error will always appear when they Don't Consent?

7. You said: "it is a best practice to load a form every time the user launches your app, even if you determine consent is not required, so that the form is ready to display in case the user wishes to change their consent setting."

Does this mean I can show the form again (after restarting the app) even though they chose "don't consent"? And for that I need to "Reset Consent" every time I start the application?

8. If I remove the "Do not Consent" option, will that cause any problems?

9. How do i know if the user clicked on "Consent" or "Do not Consent" button?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Poing,

Let me answer your follow up questions below.

5. You said "Most likely you will encounter no fill error.".

But is this really to happen with Test Ids? Wasn't the ideal always to have ads to display and should always have inventory available? And what to do when you can't load ads? 

• When you test it using our test ids, you should be able to return ads unless your implementation is wrong so there is no ads requesting.

6. They didn't consent because of the error code 3, this error will always appear when they Don't Consent?

• Error code 3 for android, is happening if the ad request was successful, but no ad was returned due to lack of ad inventory. It is not related whether you consent or not.

7. You said: "it is a best practice to load a form every time the user launches your app, even if you determine consent is not required, so that the form is ready to display in case the user wishes to change their consent setting."

Does this mean I can show the form again (after restarting the app) even though they chose "don't consent"? And for that I need to "Reset Consent" every time I start the application?

• Base on the documentation guide, yes you need to show the form again. It is recommended that you request an update of the consent information at every app launch. 

8. If I remove the "Do not Consent" option, will that cause any problems?

• As far as my understanding, it is not recommended to remove the do not consent button. The "do not consent" option is mostly useful for people that want to offer an alternative to consenting, eg.: Buying a subscription. 

9. How do i know if the user clicked on "Consent" or "Do not Consent" button?

•  To know what consent the user selected, you can use the getConsentStatus() for android that gets the current consent status, and consentStatus for iOS, as this value is cached between app sessions and can be read before requesting updated parameters.

[Poing Studios]

Hello!

10. You said "It is recommended that you request an update of the consent information at every app launch."

But i need to reset the consent to update? https://developers.google.com/admob/ump/android/quick-start#reset_consent_state or this Reset is only for testing?

11. On Android code i found this interface "ConsentType" on Interface "ConsentInformation" but i didn't found on iOS code, is this indeed? And what is this ConsentType for? does it take what the user chose or what is configured on the site in AdMob?

 

12. "When you test it using our test ids, you should be able to return ads unless your implementation is wrong so there is no ads requesting."

But I followed all the documentation and only the error of "ad was returned due to lack of ad inventory" when I click on "Do not Consent", was this supposed to happen?

13. "To know what consent the user selected, you can use the getConsentStatus() for android that gets the current consent status, and consentStatus for iOS"

But regardless of what the user selects, it always gives the status of "OBTAINED" which means: User consent obtained. Personalized vs non-personalized undefined. I would like to know if the user consented or not, is there such a possibility?

14. Is required to use "npa=1" if i choose to use non-personalized ads? And when could I use this? Do I need to use this when using UMP?

https://developers.google.com/admob/ump/android/quick-start#forward-consent

[Osman Güder]

Hi Pamela,

About the first question;

It is probably not related to "no fill error" UMP is the one causing problems. Even with test ads how could it be possible not to get a non-personalized ads? 

If I set npa=1 flag manually and request ads it is immediately filled not if consent all is not accepted no ads are shown with or without npa=1 flag.

Please try it with a simple app and you will see. Lots of people are having trouble with the non-personalized ads options.

1-Consent All -> Ads will be displayed

2- Click more options ->Partially consent -> No ads will be shown

3-Reset consent status, comment out the consent form, set npa=1 -> Ads will be displayed.

If I am not mistaken, it is probably because of users not consenting Google/Admob during selection since there are hundreds of switches loaded.

It would also be great if you could give us a sample application where we can try each scenario.

Thanks.

7 Şubat 2022 Pazartesi tarihinde saat 14:16:00 UTC+3 itibarıyla mobileadssdk şunları yazdı:

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Poing,

I work along with Pamela. Allow me to answer your follow up question. Please see my responses below.

10. You said "It is recommended that you request an update of the consent information at every app launch."
But i need to reset the consent to update? https://developers.google.com/admob/ump/android/quick-start#reset_consent_state or this Reset is only for testing?

• Yes, you may find it helpful to reset the state of the SDK so that you can simulate a user's first install experience instead of uninstalling/installing your app over again while testing

11. On Android code i found this interface "ConsentType" on Interface "ConsentInformation" but i didn't found on iOS code, is this indeed? And what is this ConsentType for? does it take what the user chose or what is configured on the site in AdMob?

• For iOS, the equivalent of this is UMPConsentInformation. This is what were configured on your admob account

12. "When you test it using our test ids, you should be able to return ads unless your implementation is wrong so there is no ads requesting."

But I followed all the documentation and only the error of "ad was returned due to lack of ad inventory" when I click on "Do not Consent", was this supposed to happen?

• The SDK will request for a non-personalized ads when your user click the "Do not consent". Please do note that the SDK just request an ad to the ad server and does not have any control on ads fill rate. In this scenario, ads are not showing due to the fact that there's no available "non-personalized" ads to serve the moment your app request it. More information can be found here. 

13. "To know what consent the user selected, you can use the getConsentStatus() for android that gets the current consent status, and consentStatus for iOS"
But regardless of what the user selects, it always gives the status of "OBTAINED" which means: User consent obtained. Personalized vs non-personalized undefined. I would like to know if the user consented or not, is there such a possibility?

• I'm afraid that there's no API method that you can use to retrieve this and I’m afraid exposing it is not in our pipeline. However, I could submit a feature request for this. For me to proceed, could you kindly provide your use case (or benefit) with regard to this functionality?

14. Is required to use "npa=1" if i choose to use non-personalized ads? And when could I use this? Do I need to use this when using UMP?
https://developers.google.com/admob/ump/android/quick-start#forward-consent

• You don't need to do this. This is for publishers who want to request non-personalized ads regardless of whether or not the user is in the EEA

For your reported behavior, would it be possible for you to provide a sample app for this? This will greatly help us in our investigation. 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=5004Q00002W4r9QQAR&entry.80707362=00093338

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,

Teejay Wennie Pimentel Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Discover Relax Traveling]

Hi,
i have the same problem:

1-Consent All -> Ads will be displayed

2- Click more options ->Partially consent or Do not consent -> No ads will be shown

3-Reset consent status, comment out the consent form, set npa=1 -> Ads will be displayed.

What is the solution to this problem?

Thanks

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

Can you confirm how frequently the ads are showing to ads are not showing? This is because, the SDK will request for a non-personalized ads when your user click the "Do not consent" and personalized ads when "Consent". Please do note that the SDK just request an ad to the ad server and does not have any control on ads fill rate. In this scenario, ads are not showing due to the fact that there's no available "non-personalized" or "personalized" ads to serve the moment your app request it. More information can be found here. 

However, if the ads that are not showing is frequently happening to an specific process, would it be possible for you to provide a sample app for this? This will greatly help us in our investigation. 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=5004Q00002W4r9QQAR&entry.80707362=00093338
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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[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Since you're unable to provide a sample app project, can you provide the other additional information below privately so that we can further check this? You can provide the following details via Reply privately to author option or directly provide it to the link below.

• App Id
• Ad unit id affected
• SDK version
• Consent SDK version