User.yob

The user's year of birth as a four-digit integer. Present since OpenRTB 2.0 and deprecated in 2.6 (2.6-202204).

Deprecated since 2.6-202204integerOptionalSince 2.0

Field facts

Path: user.yob
Object: User
Type: integer
Requirement: Optional
Added: OpenRTB 2.0
Deprecated: OpenRTB 2.6-202204
Spec section: 3.2.20

How it is used

OpenRTB 2.6 deprecated it with no replacement field. Where age targeting is permitted, it arrives as data provider segments in user.data. The 2.5 COPPA guidance already recommended suppressing yob for child-directed traffic.

Example

Where the field sits in a payload, with everything else left out:

{
  "id": "req-1",
  "user": {
    "yob": 1990
  }
}

Common mistakes

Sending an age such as 34 or a two-digit year instead of a four-digit year.
Sending it as a string.

Version history

Added in OpenRTB 2.0, deprecated in 2.6-202204, and present in the latest snapshot. The table shows how each version's spec text types the field.

Versions	Type in the spec	Required	Deprecated
2.0 to 2.2	integer	No	No
2.3 to 2.3.1	integer	No	No
2.4	integer	No	No
2.5	integer	No	No
2.6-202210 to 2.6-202606	integer	No	Yes

Versioned rules that name this field

openrtb.2.6.deprecated_fields OpenRTB 2.6 deprecated legacy sequence, device-ID hash, demographic, and single-api fields.

Related fields

Other User fields

For a walkthrough of the whole object, read User identity and EIDs.