@financial-times/ads-personalised-consent

ads-personalised-consent

A client side package to provide consent settings of personalised advertisement.

Functionality Overview

This package collects all the information related to privacy and generates an answer on whether different types of personalised advertisement is allowed. It takes into account of:

• The privacy policy of the location which the user is in (e.g. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) for California, US), which is collected from Privacy Legislation Client
• The browser settings - e.g. Global Privacy Control (GPC).
• The consents settings for behavioral, demographic and programmatic ads retrieved via the FTConsent cookie. Users can configure these settings via the Manage Cookies page in FT.com, the Manage Cookies page on the FT App and the Manage Cookies pages on the specialist titles websites. These values can also be configured via the Cookie Banner displayed on FT.com, FT App or specialist titles. Yet another way to configure ads consent is via the Privacy page on FT.com

Use

Typical usage would be to add the module to your app, call the imported method and then check whether the personalised advertisement is allowed:

import { getPersonalisedConsent } from "@financial-times/ads-personalised-consent";

async function onPageLoad() {
  // create a fresh, updated instance of PersonalisedConsent, and get the privacy properties via getters
  const pc = async getPersonalisedConsent();
  const personalisedConsent = pc.isAllowed();
  // check whether a certain type of personalised ads is allowed or not
  if (personalisedConsent.behavioral) {
    setupBehavioralAds();
  } else {
    blockBehavioralAds();
  }
  
  // alternatively, only update the privacy legislation properties and retrieve the new values
  await pc.updatePrivacyLegislation();
  const legislation = pc.getLegislation();
  const region = pc.getRegion();
  // similar for GPC value and consent cookie
  pc.updateGpcValue();
  const gpc = pc.getGpcValue();
  pc.updateConsentCookie();
  const consentCookie = pc.getConsentCookie();
  ...
}

API

getPersonalisedConsent()

Initialise the instance of PersaonalisedConsent and update all the privacy related properties. Returns a Promise which always resolves with the said instance.

personalisedConsent.isAllowed()

Returns an Object identifying whether different types of personalised ads (behavioural, demographic and programmatic) are allowed or not, based on

• The privacy policy obtained from Privacy Legislation Client (If Privacy Legislation Client returns error, it will consider the user is subject to all the policies available.)
• The browser settings for Global Privacy Control (GPC)
• The consents settings for behavioral, demographic and programmatic ads retrieved via the FTConsent cookie.

Name	Data-structure	Notes
behavioral	boolean	whether behavioral ads is allowed
demographic	boolean	whether demographic ads is allowed
programmatic	boolean	whether programmatic ads is allowed

personalisedConsent.getLegislation()

Returns the legislation stored in the instance since last update, which is either

• a Set of legislation which the user is subject to if Privacy Legislation Client succeeds, or;
• undefined if Privacy Legislation Client throws error.

personalisedConsent.getRegion()

Returns the region stored in the instance since last update, which is either

• a string identifying the region which the user is in if Privacy Legislation Client succeeds, or;
• undefined if Privacy Legislation Client throws error.

personalisedConsent.getGpcValue()

Returns a boolean showing the GPC settings on the browser (which is Navigator.globalPrivacyControl) stored in the instance since last update.

personalisedConsent.getConsentCookie()

Returns an Object identifying user's settings in FTConsent cookie for different types of personalised ads (behavioural, demographic and programmatic) stored in the instance since last update.

Name	Data-structure	Notes
behavioral	boolean	FTConsent cookie exists and behaviouraladsOnsite:on is set
demographic	boolean	FTConsent cookie exists and demographicadsOnsite:on is set
programmatic	boolean	FTConsent cookie exists and programmaticadsOnsite:on is set

personalisedConsent.update()

Update all the privacy related properties. Returns a Promise which always resolves.

personalisedConsent.updatePrivacyLegislation()

Updates only legislation and region, and returns a Promise containing

Name	Data-structure	Notes
legislation	Set of string OR undefined	a Set of legislation which the user is subject to if Privacy Legislation Client succeeds, otherwise undefined
region	string OR undefined	a string identifying the region which the user is in if Privacy Legislation Client succeeds, otherwise undefined

personalisedConsent.updateGpcValue()

Updates only the GPC settings, and return a boolean showing the latest GPC settings on the browser.

personalisedConsent.updateConsentCookie()

Updates only the user's settings in FTConsent cookie for different types of personalised ads, and return an Object identifying the settings.

Name	Data-structure	Notes
behavioral	boolean	FTConsent cookie exists and behaviouraladsOnsite:on is set
demographic	boolean	FTConsent cookie exists and demographicadsOnsite:on is set
programmatic	boolean	FTConsent cookie exists and programmaticadsOnsite:on is set