GoKawiilGoogle has begun notifying advertisers that it will start using IP addresses for ad measurement and personalization across the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK and Switzerland on or shortly after August 3, 2026.
IP addresses are received by online services on nearly every request, and the practice is routine across much of the world. But doing it in the UK and EU, where an IP address is regulated personal data, is new.
What's changing
Google already receives these IP addresses to route traffic and deliver ads, through customer tags, SDKs, HTTP calls and uploads.
What changes on August 3 is the purpose: the same addresses will be used to identify devices for measurement and ad personalization, which is the use that triggers consent requirements under UK and EU law.
Google will also register under the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) for Feature 3, "Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically."
Under the framework, Feature 3 is the method for distinguishing a device from the data it sends automatically, including the IP address.
It is not a consent step in itself: it attaches to the personalization purposes, which require user consent rather than legitimate interest.
Google's email notification sent June 17, 2026 to advertisers (BleepingComputer)
The company frames the change around privacy-enhancing technologies, or PETs, listing on-device processing, trusted execution environments and secure multi-party computation.
... continue reading