The compliance program is aimed at establishing minimum disclosure and transparency standards for any company that collects audience data for targeting, personalization, or measurement of digital advertising, and ultimately to encourage more informed data usage. Similar to manufacturers being required to provide a nutrition label on packaged foods, the standard asks data providers to offer details that inform segment quality, addressing things like segment recency, provenance, and segmentation criteria.
The program is available to any organization that offers data, whether syndicated separately or bundled alongside with media, and is also open to adoption by data marketplaces where data is bought and sold. Those organizations that complete the compliance program affirm commitment to the highest standards of audience data transparency.
Completion of the program requires an annual business audit to confirm that the information provided within the labelling is reliable, that the organization has the necessary systems, processes, and personnel in place to sustain consistent label completion at scale, and that a label can be produced for all in-market segments available. Engagements typically range between 2-5 months, depending upon the size and complexity of the company’s business. Upon completion, an organization will:
Be issued an IAB Tech Lab compliance seal confirming their adherence to transparency principles and best practices.
Have their labelling data populated alongside other compliant data within a centralized Tech Lab operated search and discovery tool within the IAB Tech Lab Transparency Center. This will take place either via integrations with participating data marketplaces, or direct upload if the provider doesn’t work with a participating marketplace. Note, this repository is only intended for Tech Lab members and will only house descriptive segment labels instead of the segment IDs themselves (and thus can’t be used for platform activations).
For further information on compliance details and pricing, please review this requirements guide and schedule time with the Tech Lab team by completing this on-boarding questionnaire.