Appodeal and GDPR

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

Some advice if anyone is clear on this topic, regarding the GDPR compliance when using Appodeal.

If I do setup my appodeal init call as such :

Appodeal.init( adListener, { appKey=appKey, hasUserConsent = false , testMode=false } )

Question 1.

setting the consent to false, there will be no need to pop-up the appodeal consent form they provide, correct?  at least that is how I understand the instructions.

Question 2.

how much is this likely to effect the revenue of the ads that appodeal will display?

Or at least maybe those who have used appodeal for sometime, having them not collect whatever it is they collect make a noticeable difference in your revenue from your apps?

I think I would prefer not to have another pop-up window for users to have to click through and just avoid the collection stuff from the get go - unless it is going to kill the ad revenues.

Thanks

Bob

#2

For question 1, if you always set consent to false, you don’t need to ask for consent. While Appodeal has said this will work, I don’t believe they think this is a best practice and I agree with them. Your end-user has no way of knowing if an ad displaying is collecting personal information or not. Your lack of a consent dialog could signal to them that you’re app is not GDPR compliant because you didn’t ask. At a minimum you should have a privacy policy on a website and at least show a dialog on first run (and also from a settings screen) that lets your end-users view what you are and are not collecting. That privacy policy could state that your ads do not collect personal information. But if you’re going to show a box anyway, ask for consent.

For question 2, I asked Appodeal this very question and they are unsure what the impact can be until they see the behavior. At this point they can only speculate. I would expect it to be noticeable to significant.  One thing that’s for certain if you go this route, you’re making less money on everyone. If you ask and 20% of your users decline, you’re still getting better, higher paying ads on 80% of your users.

Rob

#3

Great advice Rob. Thanks.  I will have a pop-up showing appodeals GDPR accept/decline when app starts first time.  I will store the accept/decline flag and should be good to go. 

If the app ever does enough downloads, I will re-tool and maybe skip the ad-mediator and layout 3 or 4 of the better ad-providers for use in the app.

Thanks

Bob

#4

Unless you’re serving the kids market, this is how you should structure ad display…

Identify EU customers, then ask for consent to serve personalized ads (interest based, targeted, basically high eCPM ads).

If they answer, Yes - good for you. remember to include a link to your privacy policy when asking for consent. 

If they answer, No - serve contextual ads (non-personalized, basically lower eCPM ads)

Regardless, if you’re starting out and you want to maximize your fillrate, Appodeal seems like a good network, as they are connected to multiple networks and your consent settings is passed down to their partners when requesting for ads. 

#5

For question 1, if you always set consent to false, you don’t need to ask for consent. While Appodeal has said this will work, I don’t believe they think this is a best practice and I agree with them. Your end-user has no way of knowing if an ad displaying is collecting personal information or not. Your lack of a consent dialog could signal to them that you’re app is not GDPR compliant because you didn’t ask. At a minimum you should have a privacy policy on a website and at least show a dialog on first run (and also from a settings screen) that lets your end-users view what you are and are not collecting. That privacy policy could state that your ads do not collect personal information. But if you’re going to show a box anyway, ask for consent.

For question 2, I asked Appodeal this very question and they are unsure what the impact can be until they see the behavior. At this point they can only speculate. I would expect it to be noticeable to significant.  One thing that’s for certain if you go this route, you’re making less money on everyone. If you ask and 20% of your users decline, you’re still getting better, higher paying ads on 80% of your users.

Rob

#6

Great advice Rob. Thanks.  I will have a pop-up showing appodeals GDPR accept/decline when app starts first time.  I will store the accept/decline flag and should be good to go. 

If the app ever does enough downloads, I will re-tool and maybe skip the ad-mediator and layout 3 or 4 of the better ad-providers for use in the app.

Thanks

Bob

#7

Unless you’re serving the kids market, this is how you should structure ad display…

Identify EU customers, then ask for consent to serve personalized ads (interest based, targeted, basically high eCPM ads).

If they answer, Yes - good for you. remember to include a link to your privacy policy when asking for consent. 

If they answer, No - serve contextual ads (non-personalized, basically lower eCPM ads)

Regardless, if you’re starting out and you want to maximize your fillrate, Appodeal seems like a good network, as they are connected to multiple networks and your consent settings is passed down to their partners when requesting for ads.