The IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) enables ad tech vendors to operate in compliance with GDPR by using a Consent Management Provider (CMP). CMPs interface directly with consumers, providing transparency around data collection, offering privacy settings, and recording those privacy settings for ad tech vendors to respect and propagate responsibly. Hundreds of CMPs have registered to implement the TCF over the past year. One of these CMPs is the DigiTrust CMP, an open source solution co-developed by DigiTrust members including Adform, Rakuten Marketing, Purch, CPEx, and IPONWEB.
DigiTrust is a standardized identifier and neutral namespace offered by IAB Tech Lab. The service was founded by ad tech platforms and premium publishers aiming to reduce the number of third-party requests on Web pages, through efforts to eliminate the need for pixel synchronization. The DigiTrust user token was designed to be propagated by and between its members in lieu of billions of proprietary tokens and trackers on Web pages daily. With this blog post, the current working group asks for new members who are interested in sharing development resources by contributing to the DigiTrust CMP.
Ad tech vendors don’t always have a direct relationship with consumers — the CMP plays a critical role in bridging this gap. The CMP forms a consent string based on consumer preferences, and this consent string is propagated through the ad tech supply chain for appropriate action. The DigiTrust CMP is also able to utilize the DigiTrust ID and cookie space. The organizations came together for this project as they had the shared goal of building a GDPR-compliant consent management platform that ties consumer preferences to the standardized DigiTrust user ID and adheres to the IAB EuropeTransparency and Consent Framework. This is driven by a belief that industry standard identifiers and consumer privacy preferences belong together.
The next version of the Transparency and Consent Framework specifications is expected to be released for public comment in Q2 2019, and the DigiTrust CMP contributors will soon incorporate these v2 technical upgrades and new features into the CMP build. Open source projects, like the DigiTrust CMP, allow for multiple companies to share the resources that would otherwise be spent building up the same foundational technology.
“Having access to a simple, customizable, and free-to-use solution for managing consent has been the most influential step towards achieving GDPR compliance across the Rakuten Marketing network of partners” says Henry Bruce, Senior Product Manager at Rakuten Marketing. “The DigiTrust CMP has made it easy for even the smallest players in ad tech to make steps towards compliance quickly and at no cost.”
“GDPR compliance is undoubtedly one of the main challenges that the ad tech industry is facing. We believe that collaborative approach, flexibility and transparency is the best way to approach this — not only for ad tech vendors and publishers, but ultimately also for the users,” said Lukáš Šmol, Head of Production at CPEx. “That’s why we have joined the DigiTrust CMP Working Group and are strongly recommending the tool to our publishers.”
The DigiTrust CMP Working Group has a collective of contributors and is now accepting new participants. The working group meets regularly to review pull requests and product enhancements. As of this writing, we are in the process of ramping up to support TCF v2 specifications — it’s a great time to join the effort and collaborate!
To learn more about DigiTrust please visit the DigiTrust website.
To join the DigiTrust CMP Working Group please email the IAB Tech Lab.