GDPR, CCPA and cookies laws compliancy

Disclaimer

This guide is informative only, it is designed to help with compliance with GDPR, CCPA and privacy & cookies laws while using Radiant Media Player but it does not relieve the reader of its obligations under the law. This article is not legal counsel on the subject of GDPR, CCPA or privacy and cookie laws. Please seek guidance with a legal counsel if you are in doubt.

Does Radiant Media Player collect personal data?

No. We do not collect personal data with our player. The only data we collect are domain names and app names where our player is used and the number of player starts for each domain/app. This is required for billing purposes and to insure global availability of our player. Some 3rd-party services that we have an integration with could however be collecting personal data or using cookies, for example analytics or advertisement services.

Does Radiant Media Player use cookies?

localStorage and IndexedDB usage

Our understanding is that localStorage and IndexedDB are considered equivalent to cookies. Radiant Media Player makes use of localStorage or IndexedDB with some of its features. While we do not collect personal data with localStorage or IndexedDB, you still need to comply with cookies laws when using localStorage or IndexedDB.

localStorage

Our player uses localStorage by default with the rememberVolume setting. localStorage is also used with the player when the rememberCurrentTime and rememberQuality settings are enabled. localStorage enables data to be saved on the client-side (read the browser or app) with JavaScript. If you want to turn off localStorage altogether you can set allowLocalStorage setting to false.

IndexedDB

The player also uses IndexedDB when using offline storage & playback. This feature is however not enabled by default and needs to be explicitly turned on for IndexedDB to be used with our player.

If you are looking for a free, open-source JavaScript plugin to handle cookie consent on your site or app, take a look at this GitHub repository

3rd-party services used with Radiant Media Player

3rd-party services that we have an integration with could be collecting personal data or using cookies, for example analytics or advertisement services.

Video advertisement services

When using Google IMA you need to request cookie consent in all cases. If you are using personalized ads you also need to request user consent for ads personalization. For Google Ad Manager users, you may request non-personalized ads by appending &npa=1 to an ad tag. See more information on Google site here. If you are using another ad-serving service then please refer to the documentation of that ad-serving service to know how to request non-personalized ads.

When using our rmp-vast parser you also need to request cookie consent as well.

Analytics services

When using Google Analytics you need to request cookie consent. This applies to using our Google Analytics integration as well. See more information on Google site here.

Other analytics services like Mux Data or MediaMelon are very likely requiring cookies consent as well. Please refer to the documentation of those analytics services for more information.

GDPR consideration

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in European Union (EU) law on data protection and privacy in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR's primary aim is to give control to individuals over their personal data.

Long-story short, if you are targeting an audience for your video app or site in the European Union and you are collecting personal data (you likely are), you need to comply with GDPR terms and you need to request consent from your viewers before collecting personal data.

Further to this some strict interpretation of GDPR compliance may require all servers delivering content to viewers in the European Union to be located in the European Union. To comply with this case scenario with Radiant Media Player you must:

• Use self-hosting of player files and host those files on servers exclusively located in the European Union
• Set player setting strictGdprCompliance to true

Documentation for strictGdprCompliance setting follows:

strictGdprCompliance: Boolean

When set to true, allow the player to use secondary license servers located inside the European Union. Only use if you have a business requirement to do so. Default: false.

We also support the __gdpr-consent__ ad tag variable with our player provided the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) v2.0 is implemented on your site/app.

CCPA consideration

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives consumers more control over the personal information that businesses collect about them and the CCPA regulations provide guidance on how to implement the law. This landmark law secures new privacy rights for California consumers, including:

• The right to know about the personal information a business collects about them and how it is used and shared;
• The right to delete personal information collected from them (with some exceptions);
• The right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their personal information;
• The right to non-discrimination for exercising their CCPA rights;
• The right to correct inaccurate personal information that a business has about them;
• The right to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information collected about them

Our understanding is that for CCPA compliance a website must provide an opt-out option for denying consent to use cookies that collect and sell users' personal information. It requires to have a "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" link on the consent banner for opting out of the sale of personal information. CCPA also does require websites to disclose their use of cookies in a privacy policy.

Since Radiant Media Player does not collect or sell personal information, no further action is needed to comply with CCPA with our player for "Do Not Sell My Personal Information". This however may become untrue if you are using our player with 3rd-party services like analytics or advertisement services. Please refer to the documentation of those 3rd-party services to understand how to best comply with CCPA terms. For Google IMA SDK, an article on the subject of CCPA preparation is available here.

We also support the __uspdata__ ad tag variable with our player provided the USP API is implemented on your site/app.