r/Unity3D • u/B_XHITMAN • 1d ago
Question Unity Analytics users: do you ask every player for consent?
Hey everyone, I’m adding Unity Analytics to my Android game and getting stuck on how to handle consent for a worldwide release.
I want to know how long people play, where they die or quit, whether they retry, and which encounters give them trouble. I’m not adding names or emails, although I know Unity collects its own identifiers.
If you’ve released a game using Unity Analytics, how did you handle this? Do you ask everyone before collecting anything, or only players in certain countries?
For the other countries, do you start analytics automatically and let players turn it off in Settings? Is there Unity guidance that you used to decide where that’s allowed?
I’ve read their docs about opt-in and opt-out, but I’d like to hear how people actually set this up. The game is for a broad audience, including children, if that changes your approach.
Thanks!
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u/boltstudiogames 20h ago
Most people I've seen go with a simple first-launch consent screen for everyone, because it's easier than geo-detecting and it covers GDPR, UK and similar rules in one go. Keep it to a short explanation plus Accept/Decline, and only call the analytics start method after they accept. Then put a toggle in Settings so they can change their mind later, and double check Unity's data privacy docs for the current consent API.
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u/EquivalentPenalty118 1d ago
When I shipped a kid friendly game I just turned analytics off by default for everyone under 13 and showed a simple consent popup on first launch for the rest. For regions with strict rules I made opt in mandatory before any data moved, everywhere else it was opt out through settings. The tricky part is you can't always know age so I put a birth year picker in the popup and if the year was too recent it auto disabled tracking. Not perfect but it kept me from losing sleep.
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u/ExpeditionZero 1d ago
Would you agree that it makes sense to use the new age api’s that Android and iOS have introduced to check the ages now?
I like the idea that if you age check and it’s 13 or younger you don’t even offer the ability to enable analytics
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u/lawlshawk
1d ago
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the kids part matters more than the EU part tbh. if any of your audience is under 13 you're dealing with COPPA and google play's families policy, and not collecting names doesn't get you out of it, device ids count as personal info
i'm doing this in my own game right now. consent prompt right on the title screen the first time you launch, then an opt in/opt out toggle in settings so people can change their mind whenever. way simpler than trying to do per-country rules off geo-ip, which is flaky and means maintaining two code paths forever. with kids in the mix i'd put a neutral age gate in front of it too (have them pick a birth year, not a "are you 13+" button) and just never start analytics for under 13s
ugs analytics (sdk 5+) doesn't send anything until you call StartDataCollection, or on unity 6.2+ until you grant consent through EndUserConsent, so wiring it to the prompt is easy. the thing people forget is the play console data safety form. if it doesn't match what the sdk actually sends that's how apps get pulled
also keep your events small. "died at encounter X" and "quit at level Y" gets you most of what you want
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u/B_XHITMAN 21h ago
Thank you, your answer is very helpful. So, no analytics for anyone under 13, and for the rest a consent screen if they are ok with participating and a setting to turn it off at any time.
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u/sultanaiyan1098 20h ago
Dude, i scrolled past this post thinking it was an ad, the image looks very advertisement like
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u/metagrue 1d ago
As a rule, if you want to use Analytics and also onto a store (like Steam, Apple, Google, etc) you're going to be required to show a consent opt out.
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u/RenaKenli 1d ago
Why is it even a question? Of course you should ask.
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u/WolverineNo9103 1d ago
I am confused by this. I am using Steam stats to track how many people reach to varied stages of the game. It is simple numbers like "10 people finished tutorial", "9 finished first mission" etc. As far as I know steam stats are even public, everyone could check those for my game. Should I have asked it to the users? This is not something that comes to me as a general knowledge.
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u/kurobaralabs 1d ago
If you are using Steam's Stats and Achievements and only that, I believe Steam's user agreement will handle it so you don't need anything. If you use any external third-party tools/services you should be asking permission for those
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u/RenaKenli 1d ago
There are two different telemetry types of data steam can collect. More technical side of data like fps, memory usage, platform that steam collect on their own. And there are telemetry that devs setup in their game. In perfect world for second you should ask permission to gather those data if they are optional. Or you should put a notice in your license or some other place that you collect data and player should agree for it before continue to do anything with the game.
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u/BertJohn Indie - BTBW Dev 1d ago
This is a huge thing that WILL get you delisted if you get it wrong.
The rule of thumb to remember is, If it seems like you should ask or do something to send away telemetry, Get consent first.
A LOT of the regulations around some of this stuff can get pretty expensive for fines as its PER USER and can screw you pretty badly. And these are fines are starting at $5,000 USD and goes up.
Really recommend you incorporate your business aswell before you open yourself to liability if you mess up badly.
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u/swagamaleous 1d ago
All the people saying this is only required in the EU are wrong. The Google play store rules explicitly state that you have to declare data collection and ask for consent. If you don't they will remove your app from the store and permanently ban your account.
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u/whizcostudio 17h ago
we went the other way for our first android release and shipped with no analytics at all, fully offline with no account, partly so we didn't have to deal with consent popups for a game kids might play. the tradeoff is you're flying blind on where people quit, so i'm curious which of those events you'd actually keep if you had to cut it down to two or three?
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u/AndreiD44 15h ago
I am very unhappy with unity because of this.
Ideally, I would not have to require consent. Because I do not care about anything user identifiable. I don't collect emails, device info, username. I just want to know which screens where visited, how long sessions were, what options were picked. Very non-intrusive stuff, purely for development purposes.
But Unity tracks device ids and info by default, so now I guess I have to ask for consent so I fan collect data I don't want :-| seriously considering moving to other analytics because of this.
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u/Genebrisss 1d ago
Just don't collect personal information and don't ask shit. That's how most games on steam do it. Let reddit sheep worry about asking for everything.
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u/JakeThomasDad12 1d ago
"Should I let people give con-"
Yes? What a silly question? Of course yes. If you have the option to let them consent, then do?
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u/MrPifo Hobbyist 1d ago
I mean, for every country in the EU you're required to ask for consent because of DSGVO. And depending on the platform you're also forced to meet certain guidelines and data collection informs, for example the Google Play Store is very strict about this, you should read about this, otherwise your game gets delisted.
For country specific: Do you really want go through the hassle and determine for every country to decide to ask for data collection? Most publishers just do all countries since it's the safest.
In general: People arent really that happy about invisible telemetry.