Google Says: Jump.. I say “My Privacy Policy Is Updated”
Posted on March 1, 2008
Filed Under Adsense
Last week Adsense updated their Terms of Service. You probably noticed the change because they forced you to acknowledge the updates when you logged-in to your Adsense account. The TOS was the page that you scanned-thru to find the “I accept” button at the bottom so you could hurry and get back to looking at your Adsense stats.
I actually did take the time to read the changes, but I’m not going to dissect them here because that’s not what my blog is about - To read a good comparison of the changes “before” and “after”, jump over to Jim Karter’s blog. He has taken the time to put together a complete before/after comparison in this post (be sure to thank him by dropping a comment).
Anyway, the one big change that a lot of Adsense publishers are talking about is the requirement by Google to have a privacy policy on your website that discloses your use of cookies and ‘web beacons’ - AND it says you must actually abide by that policy. Here is the exact wording from the new TOS:
You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your user’s browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management.
Since I already had a privacy policy as required by Hotmail back when they decided I was a spammer, this was not a big deal. But now I had to update it, and actually make it available to visitors and members. As I was updating the policy it occurred to me that forcing Adsense publishers to have and abide by a policy like this is a very good idea. I think that Google is realizing that Adsense is partially due to the downfall of the internet by spawning so many millions of MFA websites and they’re attempting to root-out the krap. This is partially proven by all the grumbling and complaining I’ve seen in some of the webmaster forums. It’s funny how “real” website publishers don’t seem to mind all that much, but the “MFA’ers” are bitching and whining. I can’t wait to start seeing a Privacy Policy posted on all of those 1 or 2 page, worthless websites and it’s only a matter of time before we start to see all the of the “I got banned from Adsense for no reason” posts at DP Forums (and others) for the MFA’ers that choose to ignore or didnt bother to read the policy changes.
Updating my privacy policy wasn’t difficult, but it did take a few minutes of research. I added several things of my own, and borrowed a few ideas from some Google-owned websites. I also decided to place a link to the new policy that was visible on all pages, just in case Google decided to audit me (which I’m sure they’ll be doing at some point). Even though Premium Memberships are now generating far more income than Adsense - $4,500 vs less than $2,000 for Adsense in February ‘08, I still would not want to loose that Adsense income.
If you value your Adsense account like most of us do, you should probably take a few minutes to create or update your privacy policy. If you need help, there are several threads in the Adsense section of DP Forums. You can also have a look at my updated privacy policy. Feel free to copy & paste from it, just make sure you change the site name and other site-specific information. If you DO copy and paste from it or get any ideas from it for your new or updated privacy policy, please drop a comment.
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5 Responses to “Google Says: Jump.. I say “My Privacy Policy Is Updated””
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Thanks for sharing your privacy policy. It’s very helpful. One issue: your policy says that you don’t set a cookie for tracking purposes, but you don’t really make it clear that Google Analytics sets cookies. I’m not sure if that’s OK or not.
Anyway, thanks again!
Good point Peggy. I made a slight change that hopefully clears that up.
I wonder if any of my visitors will ever actually read (or care about) the privacy policy, or if it’s just us and Google that will ever see it..
I doubt that most of your visitors will even look for a privacy policy. I figure it’s mostly to CYA for those few people who care - and another way for Google to weed out AdSense users who don’t take the terms and conditions seriously.
Thanks for allowing use of the wording for your privacy policy.
Much better than “I don’t do bad stuff with your info”, which would be about all I could think up.
Randy,
I did use portions of your privacy policy for my blog…thanks!