AdSense users are up for some “I Agree” clicking in the near future, if they want to continue using Google’s service, as one of the general changes in the terms and conditions is looming around the corner. The development of the Internet, Web 2.0 alongside it, is constantly demanding new technologies and services to be pushed up front by every company in order to keep up with the times and trends.
The upcoming changes are Google’s way of making sure that there’s no
legal ambiguity between any aspects of the AdSense program, and furthermore to assure that every possible aspect of the projects in development is already covered when they hit the Web.
Two broad categories will be targeted by the new rules and regulations. The first has the future products and features at its core, and this comes right as the DoubleClick acquisition will finally receive the big OK from the European Union regulators, the last to have second thoughts about the non-monopolistic approach to advertising that Google is hinting at. Upcoming ad formats and mediums are the ones pointed at, such as Gadget Ads, which offers the option to deliver the Mountain View-based company’s money-making content offline.
The changes to this section aren’t grand in design, just re-writes of the old terms and conditions designed to cover the possibility that future products be priced, paid or managed differently than the current ones, Julie Beckmann, AdSense Publisher Support, writes in a post on the Google AdSense Blog.
Category number two includes the troublesome privacy requirements, an area Google has always had problems with. Just last week, the EU Article 29 Working Party announced that Search Engines have to shorten the time the cookies are active, among other things. Right in the heels of this decision, the announcement about the update to the terms and conditions comes as a natural next step. Publishers will be obliged to notify their users about all the data-collecting beacons and cookies delivered in the ad-serving process, Beckman points out.
The changes don’t limit to those mentioned above and the whole process is long and tiring. However, reviewing the updated information is a must for AdSense publishers, if they are to keep using the product and services abiding the law. There’s no need to skim through the modifications though, the date until they have to be accepted (or not) is the 25th of May.