Google AdSense has updated its Terms and Conditions to prepare for future changes to the products and services they offer. A new requirement is that AdSense publishers need to post a privacy policy on their sites to abide with the terms.
Google announced the new policy changes –
We’ve also added some specific requirements that make it necessary for publishers to post and abide by a transparent privacy policy that users see. According to this policy, publishers must notify their users of the use of cookies and/or web beacons to collect data in the ad serving process. This change relates to advertisers’ use of innovative products and features like Gadget Ads and other offerings in the future.
So go ahead and prepare a privacy policy now. You might want to read the Google Privacy Policy to get a hint of more privacy issues related to Google.
I don’t think it will be easy for Google Adsense to enforce this policy on thousands of its bloggers and publishers. They will firstly need to setup a time frame to let bloggers post a privacy policy and many webmasters would have no idea what a privacy policy reads like, so they might have to post sample templates of suggested privacy policies. What if someone does not publish a privacy policy – will they ban their adsense account?
Update: Google AdSense Terms and Conditions have been updated. See under Program participation –
“You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users 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.”