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Disclose to US users

Note

Important: Verify that you have Account Management permission to complete the configuration for EU Consent and GDPR, US State regulations, and User Messaging Platform. See Manage user access to your account for details.

To help you comply with U.S. states privacy laws, the Google Mobile Ads SDK lets you use Google restricted data processing (RDP) parameter to indicate whether to enable RDP. Google also supports the Global Privacy Platform (GPP) for applicable US states.

When the Google Mobile Ads SDK uses either signal, the SDK restricts certain unique identifiers and other data processed in the provision of services to you.

You must decide how restricted data processing can support your compliance plans and when to enable it. Determine whether to use the RDP parameter directly or signal consent and privacy choices with the GPP Specification.

This guide helps you enable RDP globally via local storage or on a per-ad request basis, and use the GPP signal.

This document is based on:

Prerequisites

To indicate whether a user is under the age of consent, set tag_for_under_age_of_consent / TagForUnderAgeOfConsent (TFUA). When you set TFUA to true, the UMP SDK doesn't request consent from the user. If your app has a mixed audience, set this parameter for child users to ensure consent is not requested.

Important

The UMP SDK does not forward the TFUA tag set on consent requests to the Mobile Ads SDK. You must explicitly set tag_for_under_age_of_consent on ad requests. If you don't set tag_for_under_age_of_consent on ad requests, the UMP SDK does not collect any information that allows Google to determine whether or not users under the age of consent use your app.

For more information, see Tag an ad request for users under the age of consent.

The following example sets TFUA to true on a UMP consent request:

var params := ConsentRequestParameters.new()
params.tag_for_under_age_of_consent = true

UserMessagingPlatform.consent_information.update(params, _on_consent_info_updated)

using PoingStudios.AdMob.Api;
using PoingStudios.AdMob.Ump.Core;

var parameters = new ConsentRequestParameters
{
    // Indicate the user is under age of consent.
    TagForUnderAgeOfConsent = true
};

UserMessagingPlatform.ConsentInformation.Update(parameters, OnConsentInfoUpdated);

Enable the RDP signal

Google supports two ways to enable Restricted Data Processing (RDP). Both are valid and supported by the Google Mobile Ads SDK:

In the official Android and iOS SDKs, Google recommends writing the gad_rdp key directly to local storage (SharedPreferences on Android, UserDefaults on iOS). The Google Mobile Ads SDK reads this key automatically during ad loading and applies RDP to all ad requests across the app:

if OS.get_name() == "Android":
    ApplicationPreferences.set_int("gad_rdp", 1)
elif OS.get_name() == "iOS":
    ApplicationPreferences.set_bool("gad_rdp", true)

if (OperatingSystem.IsAndroid())
{
    ApplicationPreferences.SetInt("gad_rdp", 1);
}
else if (OperatingSystem.IsIOS())
{
    ApplicationPreferences.SetBool("gad_rdp", true);
}

Per-ad request

You can also enable the RDP signal on a per-ad request basis by inserting the key rdp with a value of 1 (or "1" in C#) into the extras dictionary of an AdRequest:

var ad_request := AdRequest.new()
ad_request.extras["rdp"] = 1

var adRequest = new AdRequest();
adRequest.Extras.Add("rdp", "1");

Note

Tip: You can use network tracing or a proxy tool such as Charles to capture your app's HTTPS traffic and inspect the ad requests for a &rdp= parameter.

Use the IAB GPP Signal

If you collect consent decisions with a consent management platform (CMP) or your own custom messaging, the Google Mobile Ads SDK respects GPP signals written to local storage. The User Messaging Platform (UMP) SDK supports writing the GPP signal. To gather US state consent, configure a U.S. state regulations message in your AdMob account under Privacy & messaging. For UMP setup, see Set up UMP SDK.

The UMP SDK writes GPP data to local storage following the IAB GPP specification. Note that the UMP SDK only populates these two keys for handling US state regulations:

  • IABGPP_HDR_GppString: The GPP string containing encoded user consent and opt-out preferences.
  • IABGPP_GppSID: The section IDs included in the GPP string (for example, 7 for US National).

You can read the consent choices from local storage using ApplicationPreferences:

var gpp_string := ApplicationPreferences.get_string("IABGPP_HDR_GppString")
var gpp_sid := ApplicationPreferences.get_string("IABGPP_GppSID")

var gppString = ApplicationPreferences.GetString("IABGPP_HDR_GppString");
var gppSid = ApplicationPreferences.GetString("IABGPP_GppSID");

Test your US states regulations messaging

To test your U.S. states regulations message flow using the UMP SDK on a test device, force the debug geography on ConsentDebugSettings:

  • Simulate a regulated U.S. state: Set debug_geography to DebugGeography.Values.REGULATED_US_STATE (or DebugGeography.RegulatedUsState in C#).
  • Suppress U.S. states regulations messages: Set debug_geography to DebugGeography.Values.OTHER (or DebugGeography.Other in C#).
var request := ConsentRequestParameters.new()
var debug_settings := ConsentDebugSettings.new()
debug_settings.debug_geography = DebugGeography.Values.REGULATED_US_STATE
debug_settings.test_device_hashed_ids.append("TEST-DEVICE-HASHED-ID")
request.consent_debug_settings = debug_settings

UserMessagingPlatform.consent_information.update(request, _on_consent_info_updated)

using PoingStudios.AdMob.Api;
using PoingStudios.AdMob.Ump.Api;
using PoingStudios.AdMob.Ump.Core;

var request = new ConsentRequestParameters();
var debugSettings = new ConsentDebugSettings();
debugSettings.DebugGeography = DebugGeography.RegulatedUsState;
debugSettings.TestDeviceHashedIds.Add("TEST-DEVICE-HASHED-ID");
request.ConsentDebugSettings = debugSettings;

UserMessagingPlatform.ConsentInformation.Update(request, OnConsentInfoUpdated);

Mediation

If you use mediation, navigate to Privacy & messaging > US states regulations in the AdMob UI to manage ad partners for U.S. states. Consult each ad network partner's documentation to determine the options they offer for U.S. state regulations compliance.