Handle viewer opt-outs
How a viewer's choice to stop targeted ads reaches LtvAdx, what it changes, what lasts, and what to tell a viewer who asks you.
Viewers tell you they do not want targeted ads far more often than they tell LtvAdx. This article shows the ways their choice can reach LtvAdx, what it changes, and what to tell a viewer who asks you. For how the choice is used when ads are served, see How viewer privacy and consent work.
What an opt-out does
A household that has opted out is served contextual ads only. It is put in no audience segment, and not used for frequency capping, retargeting or addressable delivery. Contextual means the ad is chosen from the channel, the country and the device, not the household.
The opt-out is recorded so that it lasts. It is kept for 730 days, and it holds even if the household's profile has expired or someone uploads the same household again.
The ways a choice arrives
| Way | Who does it | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Device setting | The viewer, on their TV | The "Limit Ad Tracking" or equivalent setting is sent with each ad request. That request is served contextually. |
| The Ad Choices page | The viewer | A request is stored for LtvAdx staff, who answer it from their own mailbox. See below. |
| A link from your app | The viewer, through your app | The opt-out is applied straight away, with no email and no staff step. |
| Your consent tool | You | Your tool records the viewer's choice for the household. |
| Your subscriber upload | You, as an operator | A subscriber marked as opted out is put in no segment. |
The Ad Choices page
The viewer goes to Ad Choices, gives an email address and a reason, and sends the form. The request is stored before anything else happens. LtvAdx does not email the address the viewer typed. Staff reply from their own mailbox.
Where staff act on a request, the email address is matched to households that carry the same address, and those households are opted out. If no household carries it yet, the choice is held and applied as soon as one does.
The page tells the viewer that device settings take effect immediately and apply to every ad platform, so they are the most complete way to opt out.
A link from your app
If your TV app has its own Ad Choices link, it can carry a signed code for the viewer's household, or the TV's device ID. When the viewer sends the form from that link, the household is opted out at once and no email address is needed. The answer looks the same whether or not a household was found, so it never reveals which devices are known. How to get the code and send it is in the Identity API guide for developers.
Your consent tool
Publishers with a consent tool, and operators with their subscribers' choices, can record a household's opt-out (the consent call in the Identity API guide). An opt-out can only be added this way. Only LtvAdx, acting on the viewer's own request, can remove one or record consent for a household.
Operators
In your subscriber upload, set optedOut to true for a subscriber who opted out. That subscriber is put in no segment and gets contextual ads only, from the moment the file is processed. Setting it back to false withdraws only your own earlier statement. It does not undo a request the viewer made themselves. A subscriber also leaves targeting 30 days after their last upload, so upload at least weekly. The Opted out card on Household data shows how many you have.
What to tell a viewer who asks you
- Turn on Limit Ad Tracking, or the equivalent, on the TV. It works across every ad platform.
- Or use the Ad Choices page.
- Opting out of targeted ads does not change their subscription. Account questions go to you.
- For access or deletion of their data, the Privacy Policy says to contact the publisher or operator first. See the Privacy Policy.
If something goes wrong
A viewer says they still see ads. They will. Opting out stops targeting, not ads.
A viewer says the ads are still about them. Ask which device. If they have not set the device option and have not sent a request, there is nothing to apply. If they have, contact support with the device ID and the time.
An operator opt-out seems to have been undone. A later upload that sets optedOut to false only withdraws that operator's own statement. A viewer's own request, and other sources, still hold.