IAB TCF 2.0: Benefits and Global Expansion

The IAB TCF 2.0 upgrade deadline has passed, but publishers have until September 30 until version 1 consent strings are depreciated. The lists of features, purposes, stacks, new structure for the string, and several other changes, none of the updates map to anything in previous versions, which requires publishers to make necessary changes.

Let’s take a look at the background of the framework, its benefits, why it’s getting attention from the leading ad tech organizations, and what’s next for IAB.

IAB TCF 2.0 Overview

The IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) was developed by IAB Europe, IAB Tech Lab, and participants from industry publishers, advertisers, agencies, and tech providers.

The first version of TCF was created to help companies that serve, measure, and manage digital ads comply with certain obligations of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Directive (ePD) when processing personal data or accessing and/or storing information on a user’s device. It consists of technical specifications and policies that assist all companies in the digital advertising supply chain to meet transparency and user choice requirements.

IAB TCF 2.0 Market Adoption

After receiving feedback on version 1, TCF 2.0 takes better account of a consumer’s choice, a publisher’s control, and communication with ad tech vendors, while providing enhanced functionalities and flexibility allowing it to adapt to stakeholders’ legal requirements, user experience considerations, and business interests.

Over 500 vendors have registered to implement TCF 2.0, which shows the confirmed scale and support of this effort highlights the industry’s commitment to work together to enable targeted advertising that complies with regulations. Various CMPs have been certified to support TCF 2.0, including OneTrust, CookiePro’s parent company, who was ranked by Adzerk as the #1 CMP for IAB TCF 2.0 adoption.

IAB Framework Global Expansion

IAB TCF 2.0 is just the beginning. The IAB is working on creating frameworks not only for GDPR compliance but also for a number of other privacy laws around the world.

In addition to TCF 2.0 for GDPR compliance, the IAB CCPA Compliance Framework was developed by the IAB Privacy and Compliance Unit to help digital publishers and their supply chain partners comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Moreover, the IAB Europe recently teamed up with the IAB Tech Lab, a global non-profit technical standards consortium, to develop the IAB Privacy Lab. The IAB Privacy Lab will work to support national IAB chapters in regions where privacy laws are enacted or are in development. The goal is to help identify local requirements for consumer rights and obligations so they can be incorporated into local level standards and tech frameworks.

Lastly, the IAB Privacy Lab will offer IAB’s support for consultations with regulators and corporations and help with communication between legal and policy experts. The Privacy Lab plans to use the TCF for regions where privacy laws are similar to GDPR.

The IAB is on track to help the privacy and advertising worlds come together.