IAB TCF Guide for Publishers

We understand the difficulties of navigating the IAB TCF 2.0, that's why we've put together the whats, whys, hows and whos to help you through this process.

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What is the IAB TCF?

• IAB TCF stands for the Transparency and Consent Framework by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe.
• The TCF is a first approach to provide a GDPR compliant consent interface Framework for Publishers and Advertisers.
• The IAB TCF provides a technical and legal Framework to communicate consent records between vendors, publishers and end user.

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What is the IAB Europe?

The Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe is an organization in the online advertising sector.  It tries to bring into line the interests of the digital advertising industry and media industry with the legal requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Directive (ePD).

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Why was the TCF created?

As the GDPR came into effect, just informing the visitor of a website that his personal data is being processed has become not legally sufficient anymore. The publisher (website owner) has to make sure that the visitor of his website agrees to the processing of his personal data and which vendors (advertiser) are allowed to do it and for which purpose. Thus consent is required to process personal data of end users.

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‍Who is the TCF for?

The TCF is for advertisers and for publishers who intend to use advertising to monetize their content, while not sacrificing their GDPR compliance.

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Why use the TCF?

It provides transparency and control over the processing of personal data for publishers, vendors and end user. End users have not only the possibility to give consent, getting informed about what data will be collected and processed, but they also have the opportunity to object to the processing of their personal data. Thus the “right to object” is built into the same tool (namely the CMP) and Framework.  

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What does the TCF do (and not do)?

The Framework administers that when consent is given to a certain service, the type of the consent itself (yes/no/objection) is communicated to the vendor. However, what the TCF does not take care of is that if no consent is given (or no other legal bases are fulfilled), in fact no data transfer is occurring to the vendor. E.g. if a user rejects Google Ads, you, as the website operator, need to make sure that no Google Ad scripts are loaded and no personal data is transferred to Google.

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Which Vendors use the IAB TCF?

You can find all vendors participating in the TCF in the Global Vendors List.

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Can you work with non-IAB and IAB vendors?

Yes, however the publisher needs to make sure to display to the end user which vendor is participating in the TCF and which Vendor is not and listing both groups separately. Non-IAB Vendors are listed before IAB Vendor in the TRUENDO CMP.

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Who can join the IAB?

Any company which produces, monitors, sells and measures digital ads.

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Who can use the TCF?

Any organization that intends to use digital ads on their website or digital property and wants to remain GDPR compliant.

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What is the role of a CMP in the IAB TCF?

• The Consent Management Platform (CMP) manages the consent and objections of an end user for a website.
• The CMP displays to the end user with which vendors a publisher decided to work with.
• It stores the user’s consent signal and makes consent information available to the vendors.  

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Steps for Publishers to be compliant with the IAB TCF 2.0

1. Choose a Consent Management Platform (CMP) which is compatible with IAB TCF 2.0.

2. Make sure that your chosen CMP is on the IAB approved CMP list.

3. Implement the CMP correctly according to your CMP provider’s instructions on your website or digital platform. You can find our instructions here.

4. Make sure that signals are only sent after the end user confirmed their choices and no personal data is collected and/or processed before that.

5. Make sure your website still works properly.

6. Enjoy 😊

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TRUENDO is fully IAB TCF 2.0 compatible and an IAB approved CMP (CMP ID: 304).  

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