The Roman Philosopher Lucius Anneaus Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE) was perhaps the first to note the universal trend that growth is slow but ruin is rapid. I call this tendency the "Seneca Effect."

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Help Needed: can someone check the Privacy Policy of the "Seneca Effect" blog?


Folks, Google keeps pestering me with requests for an appropriate "EU User Content Policy"; but it never tells me what exactly is wrong with it. The only message I receive from them is

Customer ID: ca-pub-7714140901520074

Our policy review indicates that while the site(s)/app(s) below have a consent notice in place, its wording fails to meet the requirements of our policy:

senecaeffect.com

So, maybe someone more knowledgeable than me could take a look at the page where I have the policy specifications. It is here https://www.senecaeffect.com/p/privacy-policy-for-seneca-effect-blog.html I tried several versions of it, but Google never seems to be happy with it. 

Thanks a lot for any help you can provide!


UB

This is the letter I keep receiving from them. 

Google
Client ID: ca-pub-7714140901520074
 
Dear Publisher

On May 25, 2018, we updated Google’s EU User Consent Policy to coincide with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force. This Policy outlines your responsibility for making disclosures to, and obtaining consent from, end users of your sites and apps in the European Economic Area (EEA) along with the UK.

It has come to our attention that the attached site(s)/app(s) do not comply with our Policy, because they:

do not seek to obtain consent from users, and/or
do not correctly disclose which third parties (including Google) will also have access to the user data that you collect on your site/app. You can view these controls and the list of ad technology providers in your Ad Manager, AdSense or Admob account.
do not otherwise meet the requirements of Google's EU User Consent Policy.

 

If you have guidance or confirmation from a Data Protection Authority that the domains listed do not require a consent notice or that they otherwise already comply with applicable privacy laws, including GDPR, please contact us. We will review any guidance you have received from a regulatory body and take action accordingly.
Action Needed

Please check the site(s) or app(s) listed in the attached file and take action to ensure they comply with our Policy. We will re-review your site(s) or app(s) regularly and monitor your account. We may take action, including suspension, if the Policy violations have not been resolved by Apr 5, 2023.

Policy Requirements

The EU User Consent Policy outlines your responsibility as a user of our ad technology to: 

Obtain EEA along with UK end users’ consent to:
the use of cookies or other local storage where legally required; and
the collection, sharing, and use of personal data for personalization of ads.
Identify each party that may collect, receive or use end users’ personal data as a consequence of your use of a Google product.
Provide end users with prominent and easily accessible information about those parties’ use of personal data
Find Out More
You can refer to our Policy help page for more information on complying with Google’s Policy including a checklist for partners to avoid common mistakes when implementing a consent mechanism. We also recommend that you consult with your legal department regarding your compliance with the GDPR and Google’s policies.
Need some help?
Contact us, we are here to help!
Sincerely, 
The EU User Consent Policy Team

Update "Ticket" received from Google

Google Logo
Hi Ugo Bardi,

Thank you for reaching us out.



Your website  senecaeffect.com <Customer ID: ca-pub-7714140901520074> is flagged for non-compliance with the EU User Consent Policy.

Please check the website flagged and take action to ensure you comply with our Policy by referring to the resources shared. We will re-review your websites regularly, monitor your account and you will be contacted if Google has confirmed the issue has been fully resolved.

Please note when we review a website, we will accept different approaches to compliance as long as they meet our policy requirements.

  • We expect users to see a clear consent notice on your website so that they can take affirmative action to indicate their decision, e.g. clicking an “OK” button or an “I agree” button.
  • We expect users to be told how the site will use data. We suggest you make clear that their personal data will be used for personalization of ads and that cookies may be used for personalized and non-personalized advertising on the first layer of Consent notice.
  • We expect users to be informed about how Google will use their personal data when they give consent on your site. We encourage you to link the Google’s Privacy & Terms site to your Privacy Policy page provided it is accessible through your consent notice.

This is not an exhaustive list, please refer to the external checklist to avoid common mistakes when implementing a consent mechanism, and the help page cookiechoices.org has examples of consent notices. 

You can also update the consent notice and let us know so that we can request the Google’s Policy team to re-audit.



Sincerely,

Gargi
 
NB: If you need to reference this support ticket in the future, the ID number is 3-4137000033827

Your feedback is crucial; it helps us understand how we can better meet or exceed your needs.

26 comments:

  1. Hi Ugo,
    Please check the cookie policy or something similar in the Blogspot control panel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have no idea about such things, but I notice that I can read your content without having to click away the box where my knowledge and consent is required.

      I bet if you make the box huge, your site will survive April 5.
      Otherwise, I wanted to say that I was always very happy to be your guest.

      Mit besten Grüße von Marcus

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. maybe im wrong, but:...
      "We expect users to see a clear consent notice on your website so that they can take affirmative action to indicate their decision, e.g. clicking an “OK” button or an “I agree” button." and so on.

      Marcus

      Delete
  2. Google seems to be trying to avoid problems with the European authorities, after the Schrems II ruling https://www.gdprsummary.com/schrems-ii/

    Naturally a spontaneous and authentic site like yours, which makes no use of users' data, has an imperfect privacy policy, whereas one which aims at making money will try to patch all the loopholes and yet extract your data.

    I don't understand though why they write to you, are you hosted on something belonging to Google?

    Miguel Martinez

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ugo I am reading this on a tablet in the USA and I do not see a popup for cookies, nor can I find a privacy policy page in your sidebar. ArtDeco.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The popup is there. You don't see It is because you gave your consent once, and your browser remembers your choice. The link to the privacy policy is on the right, one of the last widgets

      Delete
  4. Just a stoopid idea---could it be that Google Blogger is using data from your site, and that the request is to give them the coverage they want so they can do it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are making them much too smart.... but, who knows?

      Delete
  5. the significant bit seems to be:

    Action Needed

    "Please check the site(s) or app(s) listed in the attached file and take action to ensure they comply with our Policy. We will re-review your site(s) or app(s) regularly and monitor your account. We may take action, including suspension, if the Policy violations have not been resolved by Apr 5, 2023."

    what is in the attached file?


    do you have an Ad Manager, Adsense or AdMob account? they may be part and parcel of your blogspot account,
    they say there are controls and settings you should check in there;

    "It has come to our attention that the attached site(s)/app(s) do not comply with our Policy, because they:
    do not correctly disclose which third parties (including Google) will also have access to the user data that you collect on your site/app. You can view these controls and the list of ad technology providers in your Ad Manager, AdSense or Admob account."

    my suggestion is look in their attached file, then see if you can find the same items mentioned in your Ad Manager, AdSense or AdMob account and see what options there are for changing settings,


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that's more or less what I understood. But if you take a look at my policy page, you see that all those items are listed in clear. (I do use Google Ads. I am thinking to remove it.... maybe it will help?

      Delete
  6. I looked at every other blogspot.com website I have bookmarked, they all visually appear the same as yours, no pop up window requiring the user to accept or reject the collection of data,
    but the thing is every blogger is based in the US so they aren't effected by this EU User Consent Policy,
    I'm assuming you're blogging from Italy,
    somewhere in your blogspot account there must be the option to enable EU User Consent applet,
    or blogger has an EU User Consent app you can download and add to your blog,

    probably no human being is involved in these notices you are receiving from Google, it's just an AI checking accounts to see if they meet a set criteria and yours is throwing up a red flag, you're then being sent an automated notification,

    it's all very Kafkaesque isn't it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is Kafkaesque, especially considering that I have other blogs hosted on blogger, and no similar requests arrived from Google. Maybe there is an applet somewhere... it could be a good idea. Then, of course, it is a stupid AI writing to me, but that doesn't rule out that "Seneca" has been placed in some list titled "to be harassed"

      Delete
  7. Update: I received this from Google:

    Google Logo
    Hi Ugo Bardi,

    Thank you for reaching us out.


    Your website senecaeffect.com is flagged for non-compliance with the EU User Consent Policy.

    Please check the website flagged and take action to ensure you comply with our Policy by referring to the resources shared. We will re-review your websites regularly, monitor your account and you will be contacted if Google has confirmed the issue has been fully resolved.

    Please note when we review a website, we will accept different approaches to compliance as long as they meet our policy requirements.

    We expect users to see a clear consent notice on your website so that they can take affirmative action to indicate their decision, e.g. clicking an “OK” button or an “I agree” button.
    We expect users to be told how the site will use data. We suggest you make clear that their personal data will be used for personalization of ads and that cookies may be used for personalized and non-personalized advertising on the first layer of Consent notice.
    We expect users to be informed about how Google will use their personal data when they give consent on your site. We encourage you to link the Google’s Privacy & Terms site to your Privacy Policy page provided it is accessible through your consent notice.

    This is not an exhaustive list, please refer to the external checklist to avoid common mistakes when implementing a consent mechanism, and the help page cookiechoices.org has examples of consent notices.

    You can also update the consent notice and let us know so that we can request the Google’s Policy team to re-audit.


    Sincerely,

    Gargi

    NB: If you need to reference this support ticket in the future, the ID number is 3-4137000033827

    Your feedback is crucial; it helps us understand how we can better meet or exceed your needs.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Now I eliminated "adsense" from the blog. Let's see if they are happy with this.

    ReplyDelete
  9. If it is not cookies, then it's another way of collecting personal data use. Users must declare whether they want to allow their data being used for some different purposes. There are legitimate purposes, which companies will always have the right to use, but they must ask you if you allow your data for custom advertising, being targeted or market research. Sanctions for not asking consent on the users are big. Apparently, asking consent must be done even if you don't do anything with the collected data.
    Now, you surely are not using our data for anything, but some atttached applications in blogspot may be doing this. AdSense is likely the cause (Google lives on users data), though you also have a search engine and a translator integrated, who knows?

    I hope it makes sense.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ugo. Google is not the boss of you. Google is the camera next to the TV screen in 1984. Big brother capitalist cheer-leading overlords is Google. The alphabet empire.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I, for one, welcome our new Googlish overlords....

      Delete
  11. Now I have re-created the template of the Blog starting from one of the free templates given by google. It is not very different than before, except for the gray bar that I can't seem to be able to get rid of. But let's see if they are happy enough with the way it is now

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ugo, I have a story to tell as well. Good luck with this.

    Yoopertales

    ReplyDelete
  13. In my tired state, I read “template do the blog” as “temple of the Borg”
    Longtime lurker from JMG’s blogs- Berserker

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you correctly deciphered the hidden code!

      Delete
  14. I usually read your blogs using the RSS feed. I just openned it on a desktop with the debugging tools, and I'm not optimist...
    There are many cookie errors and blockings in the console. There are also too many files downloaded from various places, even after the page is displayed.
    My uBlockOrigin blocks most of them, so I may not even see everything...
    I can detail if you want (Google Play, Google Translate, Google Ads, Google Syndication, GoogleAPIs, etc.), but my main point here is : Google adds tags to your blogger site, just to track every reader. They won't remove them, won't declose what they add now and will add in the future, but you still must comply with the law.
    Which means that you must get rid of all Google things. Maybe you can uncheck boxes on your blogger account. Or you can find another blog hoster.
    I could provide that service for you, free of charge. I have a prototype blogging system on my staging platform right now, based on 25+ years of web expertise. Our blog system is very light and does not add any tracking at all, complying with the RGPD without having to ask consent to the users. Get back to me if you want to evaluate this possibility.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yes, one big problem is that Google does not like blogs, hence they don't like their own platform. I've asked them a new review of my site, if it doesn't work I have to de-platform. But even if I don't, I'll be happy to explore your blogging system. Write me at ugo.bardi(thingy)unifi.it

    ReplyDelete