Saw this today and now I’m reconsidering if Boost is right for me. I’m really hoping this is shitty boiler plate that was accidentally copied and over looked because that is some bullshit to say “unless we decide we want to use your personal data for whatever we want”.
I know “legitimate interest” is a phrase from the cookies law but there is no legitimate interest justification for this. My data is my data and I decide who has a legitimate interest in it so advertisers can fuck off, as can Boost if this the direction it’s going.
Edit to say this blew up. I didn’t realise I was kicking as big a hornet’s nest and haven’t read all the comments yet.
To be clear, what I don’t like about this and other provisions in the terms is the language and implications around data use. I’ve no problem with ads being shown - I want developers to get paid for the work they do and that makes it possible for users to have “free” access to software if they can’t afford to purchase.
I also want to add the response from Boost’s dev below to make sure it’s visible. You’ll see that it is boilerplate but required by Google and was present in Boost for reddit. I just hadn’t seen it because I purchased it immediately based on a recommendation. It doesn’t make me happy about it but does remove some doubts I was having about the direction Boost is heading.
I will be purchasing the app to support the dev because I do like Boost but I understand not everyone can afford everything so you’ll see some other suggestions in the comments below that don’t have any ads if you’re not happy with the free version and ads with their associated loss of data privacy.
Dev here.
The dialog and its content is not created by me, it is a standard solution from Google to comply with GDPR and other laws. More info here: https://support.google.com/admob/answer/10114014?hl=en
The consent dialog is also required by Google AdMob to show ads, and it is shown when the ad network is initialized.
When the app launches, first it checks for the remove ads purchase, and if it is not present, it will initialize the ads sdk. The ad network is not initialized if the remove ads purchase is detected.
Boost for Reddit was using the very same ad networks and consent dialog.
Not really, it just brings the legal definition of “legitimate interest” into question. If you’re going to give full blown CPR and use a defib on someone, you need to strip them to their bare chest so the proper placement locations can be found. If a haunted house tells me they won’t touch me unless there’s a legitimate interest, and CPR is that legitimate interest, I have absolutely no qualms about it.
Thankfully, the EU provides a definition: https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rules-business-and-organisations/legal-grounds-processing-data/grounds-processing/what-does-grounds-legitimate-interest-mean_en#:~:text=Your company%2Forganisation has a,security of your IT systems.
Basically, if the personal information required is necessary for the business to actually do the service you’re asking them to do for you, it’s considered a legitimate interest. In your example, if you ask a store to let you know when there’s a sale for bras in your size, the store has a legitimate reason to know your bust size and associated measurements.
The scummy part is that the pop-up doesn’t clearly describe legitimate interests, but that’s not Boost’s fault here. It’s straight from Google.
Serving ads—any ads, much less personalized ones—is not “necessary to actually do the service” the end user is asking for. As proven by the fact that there is a fully functional (albeit paid) version of the app without the ads.
It shouldn’t matter whether the data collection is necessary for AdMob to work—to serve personalized ads—since the subject of the data collection isn’t asking for that.