Privacy and GDPR

The Adobe Experience Platform SDKs give you controls to manage consent and privacy obligations, such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Developers can retrieve locally stored identities and set opt status flags for data collection and transmission.

Before implementing these controls, read the Adobe Experience Platform Privacy Service documentation.

When Adobe provides software and services to an enterprise, Adobe acts as a data processor for any personal data it processes and stores as part of providing these services. As a data processor, Adobe processes personal data in accordance with your company’s permission and instructions, as set out in your agreement with Adobe. As a data controller, you can use the Experience Platform SDKs to support privacy retrieve and delete requests from your mobile apps.

Setup steps

The following sections provide details on how you can collect consent and privacy status to ensure collection of data suits your user's preferences.

Depending on the mobile extensions you use, there are two ways of collecting and enforcing consent preferences when using the Experience Platform SDKs:

When using the Edge Network mobile extensions, you should use the Consent for Edge Network extension.
When using Adobe Experience Cloud mobile extensions, you should use privacy status settings.

The two options are documented in detail below.

{% hint style="info" %} If you are using a mix of Edge Network and Adobe Experience Cloud mobile extensions, please follow the steps for configuring both consent and privacy status settings. See also the frequently asked questions about consent and privacy settings or identities. {% endhint %}

Using Experience Platform SDKs for Edge Network

Update and get collect consent preferences

You can set the collect consent status to ensure collection of data suits your user's preferences.

Extension	Collect (y)	Collect (n)	Collect (pending)
Edge Network	Hits are sent	Hits are not sent	Hits are queued

Note: When no default collect consent value is defined in configuration, the SDK defaults to Yes (y) for collect consent.

{% hint style="warning" %} Updating the collect consent status to No (n) does not reset or clear the identities of the current user. If you need to reset all current identities, use the MobileCore.resetIdentities() API. {% endhint %}

Collect consent settings

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Android" %}

Java

You can set the collect consent to one of the following values:

y
n

To understand the expected behavior, see the Update and get collect consent preferences table above. {% endtab %}

{% tab title="iOS (AEP 3.x)" %} You can set the collect consent to one of the following values:

Swift

y
n

Objective-C

You can set the collect consent to one of the following values:

y
n

To understand the expected behavior, see the Update and get collect consent preferences table above. {% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

getConsents

You can programmatically view the current collect consent preferences status in a dictionary representation by using the following API.

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Android" %}

Java

Syntax

public static void getConsents(final AdobeCallback<Map<String, Object>> callback);

callback - callback invoked with the current consents of the extension. If an AdobeCallbackWithError is provided, an AdobeError, can be retruned in the eventuality of any error that occured while getting the user consents. The callback may be invoked on a different thread.

Example

Consent.getConsents(new AdobeCallback<Map<String, Object>>() {
    @Override
    public void call(Map<String, Object> currentConsents) {
        if (currentConsents == null) { return; }
    final Map<String, Object> consents = currentConsets.get("consents");
    final Map<String, Object> collectConsent = consents.get("collect");
    final String collectConsentStatus = collectConsent.get("val");
    // inspect collectConsentStatus
    }
});

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="iOS (AEP 3.x)" %}

Swift

Syntax

static func getConsents(completion: @escaping ([String: Any]?, Error?) -> Void)

Example

Consent.getConsents { currentConsents, error in
	guard error == nil else { return }
	guard let consents = currentConsents["consents"] as? [String: Any] else { return }
	guard let collectConsent = consents["collect"] as? [String: Any] else { return }
	let collectConsentStatus = collectConsent["val"] as? String
	// inspect collectConsentStatus
}

Objective-C

Syntax

static func getConsents(completion: @escaping ([String: Any]?, Error?) -> Void)

Example

[AEPMobileEdgeConsent getConsents:^(NSDictionary *currentConsents, NSError *error) {
	if (error) { return; }
	NSDictionary *consents = currentConsents[@"consents"];
	NSDictionary *collectConsent = currentConsents[@"collect"];
	NSString *collectConsentStatus = collectConsent[@"val"];
	// inspect collectConsentStatus
}];

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

updateConsents

Use this example to programmatically update the consent collect for the application user.

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Android" %}

Java

Syntax

public static void update(final Map<String, Object> consents);

Example

// example 1, updating users collect consent to 'yes'
final Map<String, Object> collectConsents = new HashMap<>();
collectConsents.put("collect", new HashMap<String, String>() {
    {
        put("val", "y");
    }
});

final Map<String, Object> consents = new HashMap<>();
consents.put("consents", collectConsents);

Consent.update(consents);

// example 2, updating users collect consent to 'no'
final Map<String, Object> collectConsents = new HashMap<>();
collectConsents.put("collect", new HashMap<String, String>() {
    {
        put("val", "n");
    }
});

final Map<String, Object> consents = new HashMap<>();
consents.put("consents", collectConsents);

Consent.update(consents);

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="iOS (AEP 3.x)" %}

Swift

Syntax

static func update(with consents: [String: Any])

Example

// example 1, updating users collect consent to 'yes'
let collectConsent = ["collect": ["val": "y"]]
let currentConsents = ["consents": collectConsent]
Consent.update(with: currentConsents)

// example 2, updating users collect consent to 'no'
let collectConsent = ["collect": ["val": "n"]]
let currentConsents = ["consents": collectConsent]
Consent.update(with: currentConsents)

Objective-C

Syntax

static func update(with consents: [String: Any])

Example

// example 1, updating users collect consent to 'yes'
NSDictionary *collectConsent = @{ @"collect": @{@"val": @"y"};
[AEPMobileEdgeConsent updateWithConsents:@{@"consents": collectConsent}];

// example 2, updating users collect consent to 'no'
NSDictionary *collectConsent = @{ @"collect": @{@"val": @"n"};
[AEPMobileEdgeConsent updateWithConsents:@{@"consents": collectConsent}];

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

getIdentities

When using the Edge Network extensions, use the Identity.getIdentities API to retrieve all the identifier data stored locally by the SDK and send this data to your servers.

Configuration keys

To programmatically update the SDK configuration, use the following information to change your default consent values. For more information, see the configuration API reference.

Key	Description
`consent.default`	Defines the set of default consent preferences for the SDK in XDM format. For more details, see Privacy/Personalization/Marketing Preferences (Consents) Schema.

Using Adobe Experience Cloud Solution extensions

Set and get privacy status

You can set a privacy status to ensure collection of data suits your user's preferences.

Expected Behavior	Opt In	Opt Out	Opt Unknown
Analytics	Hits are sent	Hits are not sent	Hits are queued
Audience Manager	Signals, ID syncs are sent	Signals, ID syncs are not sent	Syncs are queued
Campaign Classic	User data is stored, calls are sent	User data is cleared, calls are not sent	User data is stored, calls are not sent
Target	Mbox requests are sent	Mbox requests are not sent	Mbox requests are queued
Campaign Standard	User data is stored, calls are sent	User data is cleared, calls are not sent	User data is stored, calls are queued

{% hint style="info" %} Analytics users: If your report suite is not timestamp enabled, hits are discarded until the privacy status changes to opt in. {% endhint %}

setPrivacyStatus

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Android" %}

You can set the privacy status to one of the following values:

MobilePrivacyStatus.OPT_IN
MobilePrivacyStatus.OPT_OUT
MobilePrivacyStatus.UNKNOWN

To understand the expected behavior, see the "Set and get privacy status" table above.

Java

Syntax

public static void setPrivacyStatus(final MobilePrivacyStatus privacyStatus);

Example

MobileCore.setPrivacyStatus(MobilePrivacyStatus.OPT_OUT);

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="iOS (ACP 3.x)" %}

You can set privacy status to one of the following values:

PrivacyStatus.optedIn
PrivacyStatus.optedOut
PrivacyStatus.unknown

To understand the expected behavior, see the Set and get privacy status table above.

Swift

Syntax

static func setPrivacyStatus(_ status: PrivacyStatus)

Example

MobileCore.setPrivacyStatus(.optedIn)

Objective-C

Syntax

@objc(setPrivacyStatus:)
static func setPrivacyStatus(_ status: PrivacyStatus)

Example

[AEPMobileCore setPrivacyStatus:AEPPrivacyStatusOptedIn];

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="iOS (ACP 2.x)" %}

You can set privacy status to one of the following values:

ACPMobilePrivacyStatusOptIn
ACPMobilePrivacyStatusOptOut
ACPMobilePrivacyStatusUnknown

To understand the expected behavior, see the Set and get privacy status table above.

Swift

Syntax

class func setPrivacyStatus(_ status: ACPMobilePrivacyStatus) {
}

Example

ACPCore.privacyStatus = ACPMobilePrivacyStatusOptIn

Objective-C

Syntax

+ (void) setPrivacyStatus: (ACPMobilePrivacyStatus) status;

Example

[ACPCore setPrivacyStatus:ACPMobilePrivacyStatusOptIn];

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

getPrivacyStatus

You can also programmatically view the current privacy status by using the following:

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Android" %}

The enum representation of the privacy status that corresponds to the following statuses:

MobilePrivacyStatus.OPT_IN
MobilePrivacyStatus.OPT_OUT
MobilePrivacyStatus.UNKNOWN

Java

Syntax

void getPrivacyStatus(AdobeCallback<MobilePrivacyStatus> callback);

callback is invoked after the privacy status is available.
If an instance of AdobeCallbackWithError is provided, and you are fetching the attributes from the Mobile SDK, the timeout value is 5000ms. If the operation times out or an unexpected error occurs, the fail method is called with the appropriate AdobeError.

Example

MobileCore.getPrivacyStatus(new AdobeCallback<MobilePrivacyStatus>() {
    @Override
    public void call(MobilePrivacyStatus value) {
          System.out.println("getPrivacyStatus: " + status);
    }
});

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="iOS (AEP 3.x)" %}

The enum representation of the privacy status that corresponds to the following statuses:

PrivacyStatus.optedIn
PrivacyStatus.optedOut
PrivacyStatus.unknown

Swift

Syntax

static func getPrivacyStatus(completion: @escaping (PrivacyStatus) -> Void)

completion is invoked with the current PrivacyStatus.

Example

MobileCore.getPrivacyStatus { privacyStatus in
	switch privacyStatus {
	case .optedIn:
		print("Privacy Status: Opted in")
	case .optedOut:
		print("Privacy Status: Opted out")
	case .unknown:
		print("Privacy Status: Unknown")
}

Objective-C

Syntax

@objc(getPrivacyStatus:)
static func getPrivacyStatus(completion: @escaping (PrivacyStatus) -> Void)

completion is invoked with the current PrivacyStatus.

Example

[AEPMobileCore getPrivacyStatus:^(AEPPrivacyStatus status) {
	switch (status) {
		case AEPPrivacyStatusOptedIn:
			NSLog(@"Privacy status: Opted in");
			break;
		case AEPPrivacyStatusOptedOut:
			NSLog(@"Privacy status: Opted out");
			break;
		case AEPPrivacyStatusUnknown:
			NSLog(@"Privacy status: Unknown");
			break;
  }
}];

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="iOS (ACP 2.x)" %}

The enum representation of the privacy status that corresponds to the following statuses:

ACPMobilePrivacyStatusOptIn
ACPMobilePrivacyStatusOptOut
ACPMobilePrivacyStatusUnknown

Swift

Syntax

class func getPrivacyStatus(_ callback: @escaping (_ status: ACPMobilePrivacyStatus) -> Void)

class func getPrivacyStatus(withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping (_ status: ACPMobilePrivacyStatus, _ error: Error?) -> Void)

callback is invoked after the privacy status is available.
completionHandler is invoked with the current privacy status, or error if an unexpected error occurs or the request times out. The default timeout is 5000ms.

Example

ACPCore.getPrivacyStatus(
    { status in
        switch status {
            case ACPMobilePrivacyStatusOptIn:
                print("Privacy Status: Opt-In")
            default:
                break
        }
    })


ACPCore.getPrivacyStatus(withCompletionHandler: { status, error in
    if error != nil {
        // handle error here
    } else {
        // handle the retrieved privacy status
    }
})

Objective-C

Syntax

+ (void) getPrivacyStatus: (nonnull void (^) (ACPMobilePrivacyStatus status)) callback;
+ (void) getPrivacyStatusWithCompletionHandler: (nonnull void (^) (ACPMobilePrivacyStatus status, NSError* _Nullable error)) completionHandler;

callback is invoked after the privacy status is available.
completionHandler is invoked with the current privacy status, or error if an unexpected error occurs or the request times out. The default timeout is 5000ms.

Example

[ACPCore 
getPrivacyStatus:^(ACPMobilePrivacyStatus status) { 
     switch (status) { 
          case ACPMobilePrivacyStatusOptIn: NSLog(@"Privacy Status: Opt-In");               break; 
          } 
}];


[ACPCore getPrivacyStatusWithCompletionHandler:^(ACPMobilePrivacyStatus status, NSError * _Nullable error) {
        if (error) {
            // handle error here
        } else {
            // handle the retrieved privacy status
        }
    }];

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

getSdkIdentities

To retrieve all the identifier data stored locally by the SDK as a JSON string, use the getSdkIdentities API from the Mobile Core extension.

{% hint style="info" %} When using both Edge Network and Adobe Solutions extensions, use both Identity.getIdentities API and MobileCore.getSdkIdentities APIs to retrieve all the identifier data stored locally by the SDK. {% endhint %}

Configuration keys

To update the SDK configuration, programmatically, use the following information to change your privacy configuration values. For more information, Configuration API reference.

Key	Description
`global.privacy`	Setting to control privacy opt status; values may include `optedin`, `optedout`, `optunknown`

Video

{% embed url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgUJNFQp3PI" caption="Using Mobile SDK Privacy APIs" %}

Additional information

For more information about GDPR, see GDPR and Your Business
To see the Privacy Service API documentation, go to Privacy Service API

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Privacy and GDPR

Setup steps

Using Experience Platform SDKs for Edge Network

Update and get collect consent preferences

Collect consent settings

Java

Swift

Objective-C

getConsents

Java

Swift

Objective-C

updateConsents

Java

Swift

Objective-C

getIdentities

Configuration keys

Using Adobe Experience Cloud Solution extensions

Set and get privacy status

setPrivacyStatus

Java

Swift

Objective-C

Swift

Objective-C

getPrivacyStatus

Java

Swift

Objective-C

Swift

Objective-C

getSdkIdentities

Configuration keys

Video

Additional information