Streamline consent in your mobile app

In the last year, mobile apps and mobile games have been under more scrutiny by Google and the IAB when it comes to user privacy and consent. Apps that serve advertisements through AdSense, AdMob, or AdManager are required to use a consent-management platform (CMP) to provide players and users with the opportunity to opt-out (or in) to receiving targeted advertising.

At first glance, you may think that if you’re using a CMP at all, you’re in the clear. However, just because you’re collecting consent through your app doesn’t necessarily mean it’s being collected correctly. Your CMP should be Google-certified (which you can confirm by checking here) and should provide several features to ensure your revenue remains steady. We’ve gathered some common concerns developers may find when implementing new consent policies within their app.

Multiple messaging

To inform your users in compliance with privacy legislation like the GDPR and the Transparency Consent Framework (TCF), you’ll need to communicate a lot of specifics. You’ll need to show users where they can find your privacy policy, present them with a vendor list, provide an opt-in or opt-out interface for cookies and targeted advertising… the list goes on and on.

The solution for this is simple. Condense what messaging you can to avoid user fatigue, and time the messages in a staggered way. When you’re opening your apps, you don’t want to be bombarded with six different pop-up windows. By combining your privacy policy and vendor list and your opt-in, users only have to read one pop-up before getting back to their game or app.

Keeping pace with privacy updates

Privacy legislation is always changing, so it’s important to ensure your users are using the most up-to-date version of your app, or have opted-in to any changes you’ve needed to make to your privacy policy.

While you can’t always get your users to update your app promptly, you can make sure you’re still in compliance with any new privacy legislation through the use of webview messaging as opposed to native messaging. If you present your cookie popup as a webview, you’ll be able to update the content of the popup easily, without the user needing to update the app to be compliant. This isn’t the case with native messaging.

Differing global regulations

Because your audience might span the globe, it’s impossible to create a ‘one size fits all’ privacy policy that’s compliant with all the different, nuanced privacy legislation. The United States is still a patchwork of privacy laws with no federal law just yet. Though most of Europe is governed by the GDPR, countless other countries across the globe are either in the process of passing privacy legislation or already have their own frameworks in place.

This is where webview will help you again, as you can create geo-targeted policies to serve to different users depending on where they are. Any Google-certified CMP should be able to assist you in localizing your privacy policy to remain compliant with any legislation.

We work with Sourcepoint to ensure our partner sites are up to date with the latest in privacy legislation. We post updates on our blog weekly, with articles on site management, growing your audience, and more. Want to join the Collective? You can apply here.