Recently, I have received an email from Google saying that they are introducing an interest-based advertising, for which require you to review and make any necessary changes to your site’s privacy policies before April 8, 2009. I am sure that all of you who are running AdSense, are aware of the AdSense TOS (Terms Of Service) and that you should have a Privacy Policy on your websites. With all the changes that has been noticed recently (Google being more strict), I strongly suggest for you not to overlook this, as not having a Privacy Policy is a “ground” for getting your account terminated. You do not want that to happen, right?
Here is the email:
We’re writing to let you know about the upcoming launch of interest-based advertising, which will require you to review and make any necessary changes to your site’s privacy policies. You’ll also see some new options on your Account Settings page.
Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. “sports enthusiast”). To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network. As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the “sports enthusiast” interest category. To learn more about your associated account settings, please visit the AdSense Help Center.
As a result of this announcement, your privacy policy will now need to reflect the use of interest-based advertising. Please review the information at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557 to ensure that your site’s privacy policies are up-to-date, and make any necessary changes by April 8, 2009. Because publisher sites and laws vary across countries, we’re unfortunately unable to suggest specific privacy policy language.
For more information about interest-based advertising, you can also visit the Inside AdSense Blog at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/03/driving-monetization-with-ads-that.html.
We appreciate your participation and look forward to this upcoming enhancement.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Have you made the necessary changes already? Do you actually even have a Privacy Policy at all? Don’t be sorry. Just do it. Use this Privacy Policy Generator to help.
Canadian Doomer
Thanks. Even though your post is a couple of years old, it’s still very relevant, especially to us new bloggers. I’ve reworked my Disclosure Policy into Disclosure and Privacy Policy, and personalized it – including adding a few “In plain language, this means …” for those who aren’t versed in lawyer-speak. 🙂
Indeed. Old but still relevant and an important one I must add. I have seen frineds getting banned on AdSense just because of this and while Mr G is not always looking for this, you never know when they might “accidentally” land on your website and ooppss. Play it safe 🙂
Carolina
Thanks so much! just created my privacy and disclosure policy. All very clear and easy to understand.