In an e-mail sent last night to users of AdWords and its other advertising and measurement products, Google announced changes to its contract terms and EU User Consent policy for compliance with the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to become effective in May.

EU User Consent Policy: Advertisers will be required to obtain consent from users for the collection of data for personalized ads, and for the use of cookies. Specifically:

• You must obtain end users' valid consent to the use of cookies and the collection, sharing and use of personal data.
• When seeking consent you must retain records of consent given by end users, and provide them with clear instructions for revocation of consent.
• If you share with Google personal data of users of a third party property, you must make reasonable efforts to ensure that the third party also complies with these duties.

AdWords users: The new GDPR terms supplement your contract with Google effective 25 May 2018.

Other global changes Google is making for GDPR compliance:

• Enabling publishers to show non-personalized ads and to select which third parties measure and serve ads to users in the European Economic Area (EEA).
• Limit the processing of personal information for children under the GDPR age of consent in individual European countries. (Note that the age of consent varies from country to country.)
• New controls for Google Analytics users in management, retention and deletion of user data.
• "Exploring consent solutions for publishers" including working with industry groups like IAB Europe.

Note that current EU member countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and (at least until 31 December 2020) the UK.

But the European Economic Area (EEA) includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway as well as the EU member countries.

For the full text of Google's changes to the EU User Consent Policy, follow the Related Article link, below.