searchbeam
ENTR
Digital Marketing

Server-side GTM will send full IP addresses to Google ad tags

3 min read
Searchbeam cover: Server-side GTM ad tags get full IP addresses. Key facts: effective Jan 11, 2027; applies to Google ad products; check transformations and consent.
On this page
  1. What does the server-side GTM IP address change do?
  2. Why does full IP processing in sGTM matter for advertisers?
  3. How do I keep IP addresses redacted in server-side GTM?
  4. Sources

Starting January 11, 2027, tags in server-side Google Tag Manager that send data to Google Ads, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360 and Campaign Manager 360 will accept the full visitor IP address, according to a Google notice to advertisers. Google Analytics tags will keep redacting it. The notice was shared on LinkedIn by Google Ads specialist Adriaan Dekker and reported by Search Engine Journal and PPC Land.

What does the server-side GTM IP address change do?

Server containers will move from container-wide IP redaction to tag-level processing, per the notice. The four Google ad products’ tags will accept the full address, Analytics tags will keep redacting, third-party tags keep control over the signals they accept, and transformations can redact signals before any tag reads them.

Google presents the change as an opt-out and points to a Help Centre article it does not name. The notice carries no date, and as of November 3 Google’s Tag Manager release notes did not mention it, according to Search Engine Journal. Google says the update uses privacy-enhancing technologies and spam filtering to improve campaign performance, but gives no figures and names no specific technology.

Why does full IP processing in sGTM matter for advertisers?

The default changes. If you chose server-side tagging partly to limit what reached Google’s ad systems, doing nothing means your setup will behave differently on January 11. That is a decision for you to make, not one to discover later.

Consent is the second issue. Google’s notice says the customer must have proper notices and legally required consents in place before collection, and that EEA advertisers must follow Google’s EU user consent policy. Per Search Engine Journal, that policy also extends to users in the UK and Switzerland. As general context, European data protection law can treat IP addresses as personal data, so your consent setup should cover this.

Several things remain unanswered: how the change interacts with consent mode and the unconsented Floodlight requests introduced in July 2025, how long full IPs are stored, and which other “network signals” fall under the change. Treat these as open until Google documents them.

How do I keep IP addresses redacted in server-side GTM?

Google’s Help page on IP redaction for server-side tagging, cited by Search Engine Journal, describes the current documented route: a transformation. Steps to take before January 11:

  • Inventory your server containers. List every Google Ads, Floodlight and third-party tag and note which IP field each one reads.
  • Decide per tag. Choose whether each ad tag should get the full or partially redacted address.
  • Build the transformation if you want redaction. Create a custom template variable calling getAnonymizedIpAddress, then an Augment event transformation that overwrites ip_override with its output. Per Google’s API reference, the function zeroes the last octet of an IPv4 address and the last 80 bits of an IPv6 address.
  • Cover third-party tags. Some read IPs from custom headers or event parameters rather than ip_override, so the transformation must target the right field.
  • Test in Preview before publishing to production.
  • Review consent and privacy notices with your legal team so they cover IP data used by ad tags.
  • Watch the Tag Manager release notes for the official entry and the opt-out article Google refers to.

The notice covers server containers only; it says nothing about web containers or the Google tag in the browser.

Sources