Adsense changed the "tagline" of their Ads?

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Adsense changed the "tagline" of their Ads?

max9482

7:35 am on Jun 18, 2012 (gmt 0)

Hi,

we've been using Adsense since years but out of nowhere suddenly the the tagline changed.

For a 468x60 ad, it used to have the text "Google-Anzeigen" (I guess it's "Google-Ads" in English), but out of nowhere (over the weekend?) it's now "Datenschutzinfo" (which would be "Privacy info" or so).

Seems small, but we're actually required to have the word "Anzeige" ("Ad") next to any ad.

It's not that we can't place it manually next to any Adsense-Ad (which has the drawback that there's not always an ad, but we could change that with a replacement ad in such cases), but this just hit us out of nowhere. I can't find any information about it.

Any ideas? Any seen an announcement I missed?

thanks

HuskyPup

9:30 am on Jun 18, 2012 (gmt 0)

it's now "Datenschutzinfo" (which would be "Privacy info" or so)

I wonder if that has anything to do with the EU cookies and privacy stuff recently invoked which was changed at the 23rd hour in the UK?

max9482

9:53 am on Jun 18, 2012 (gmt 0)

Sorry for leaving out the detail, yes, we're located in Europe, specifically Austria. Do you have any details?

I've been aware of a few Cookie related news due EU directives having to be executed nation-wide and different countries opted for different solutions (AFAIK UK requires explicit consent per page, whereas in Austria it's declared as the following: if users browser accepts cookies, the user does so too [because he can change the browser settings]). Anyway I digress probably ...

thanks

HuskyPup

11:04 am on Jun 18, 2012 (gmt 0)

AFAIK UK requires explicit consent per page[/quote

Nope they changed that on the last day, or second to last day before introduction, and have basically done the same as Austria...Something like "Implied Consent".

I have no idea, purely a guess that it may have something to do with that however we've not had GoogleAds> for ages, it's been AdChoices>

jecasc

1:15 pm on Jun 21, 2012 (gmt 0)

It seems this little change has some major legal implications and millions of websites are now in violation of laws regarding advertising.

Laws in most european countries require a clear distinction between advertising and content. By removing the tag "Ad" or "Anzeige" the ad blocks are no longer marked as advertisment as required by laws for example in Germany.

Or as a lawyer puts it:

Diese Ausgestaltung ist von vorne bis hinten rechtswidrig. Es liegt sowohl ein Versto� gegen das Wettbewerbsrecht (� 4 Nr. 3 UWG; Nr.11 der Anlage zu � 3 Abs.3 UWG), das Telemediengesetz (� 6 Abs.1 Nr. 1 und 2 TMG) und den Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (� 58 Abs.1 RfStV) vor.

Werbung muss als solche klar und deutlich gekennzeichnet werden. Der Hinweis "Datenschutzinfo" ist daf�r nicht ausreichend. Nicht nur das: Er ist zudem auch noch irref�hrend,(...)

Google wurde bereits mehrfach auf diese Problematik hingewiesen, h�llt sich aber bislang in Schweigen.

[dr-bahr.com...]

Translation by me:

The design is illegal from from beginning to end. It is not only a breach of competition law (� 4 No. 3 UWG; No.11 of the Appendix to � 3 Paragraph 3 UWG), but also a breach of the Telemedia Act (� 6 paragraph 1 No. 1 and 2 TMG) and the Broadcasting Treaty (� 58 para.1 RfStV).

Advertising must be marked clearly as such. The label "Privacy Information" is not sufficient. Not only that, it is also misleading(...)

Google has already been made aware of this issue, but has not commented.

The problem as always is that the webmasters are liable because it is their responsibility to mark ads on their websites.

I wonder if Google will compensate webmasters for any fines or legal fees... Haha. Who am I kidding?

max9482

1:34 pm on Jun 21, 2012 (gmt 0)

Thanks, very informative. In the meantime we've re-worked our templates and added our own label to it.

But, anyway, it's incredible how we're at Googles mercy here. Wish we could simply remove them. *blow off steam*

jecasc

3:00 pm on Jun 21, 2012 (gmt 0)

I am seeing the old label on some websites. So either the change has not been fully roled out or they are switching back.