Publishers working with Google that target ads to European consumers will gain a way to serve non-personalized ads before the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy rules go into effect May 25.
The move is part of Google’s push to help publishers comply with EU regulations. The company is working to update its data use and privacy consent policies. It is also working with industry groups such as the IAB Europe to explore proposed consent solutions for publishers.
This week the reminder went out to publishers doing business in Europe to gain consent for the use of their data to target ads, among other reasons, under the new GDPR privacy rules.
“Today we’re informing advertisers and publisher partners about changes to our ad policies,” Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, Google president of EMEA Partnerships, wrote in a blog post published Thursday.
And while Google already requires publishers and advertisers using its advertising services to get consent from those who use its services, as required under existing EU law, GDPR laws will take it further.
Google said it will capture consent for properties such as search, YouTube and Gmail, but the company wants publishers to collect content when Google’s ad-targeting technologies like DoubleClick Ad Exchange, AdMob, AdSense, and DoubleClick for Publishers operate on behalf of a third party.
Under the new regulations, companies with customers or site visitors that reside in Europe must gain content through an opt-in process to collect and use their personal data.
In August 2017, William Malcolm, director of privacy legal, EMEA at Google, wrote a post outlining the company’s commitment to GDPR, but there was no mention of the ability to serve non-personalized advertisements to site visitors and users of its services such as search and Gmail.
The news follows announcements by others. On Wednesday, Oath, a Verizon company, became one of the first major advertising companies to provide guidance on Europe’s privacy law and offer insight into its “privacy by design” strategy.