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abound
12th Mar 2009, 07:47 PM
Your website should have a privacy policy already. But if you use AdSense, then Google is putting tracking cookies on your visitors' computers, and they have a right to know, and a right opt out. Google has a FAQ page discussing privacy policies and AdSense (https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557), and in part it says this:


Because publisher sites and laws across countries vary, we're unable to suggest specific privacy policy language. However, you may wish to review resources such as the Network Advertising Initiative (http://www.networkadvertising.org/), or NAI, which suggests the following language for data collection of non-personally identifying information:

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here (http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html).
Note the the "click here" link is a link to Google's own privacy policy that I added for illustration. If you post ads from other ad networks, then the link might be different. If you post from multiple ad networks, then you might want to list the links that apply.

Now, what brought this up? Well, apparently Google is starting something they call interest-based advertising, where the ads they serve up to you will be impacted by the kinds of content you visit throughout the "Google content network". I'm not sure what that phrase actually means, but at the very least, at the very least I'd expect it to include pages with AdSense ads and pages linked to with AdWords ads. On the other hand, it could include every single that Google has every spidered... but that might depend on whether the Google conspiracists are correct, that Google hopes to rule the world, in which case you'd better get that privacy notice posted soon.:wink:

abound
12th Mar 2009, 07:48 PM
Here is a copy of the email I received from Google, in regards to the need for a privacy policy:


Hi,

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 at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310 (http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310).

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 (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 (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

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Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Matt
12th Mar 2009, 08:04 PM
Thanks for pointing this out Mike. It's not only Google, but the other advertisers as well. They are getting very smart, including the companies, which offer Affiliate Programs.
Linksys for example offers "smart links", after you posted the script, it recognizes the words on that page and blends the add to the pages words.
Since a while some of them use "inbound" links,which highlight a word, as soon as the customer hovers over with his mouse, a tiny ad pops up (which can be annoying)

KarenMac
12th Mar 2009, 08:22 PM
Any website these days really needs a privacy policy. Including blogs. So good info for everyone.

Karen