What Is the TCF?

The Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) was created to help all parties that display and manage digital advertising and develop targeted content to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Directive (ePD) when processing personal information, accessing information, and/or storing information on a user’s device.

Developed by IAB Europe in collaboration with organizations and professionals in the digital advertising and publishing industries, the first version of the TCF was launched on 25 April 2018. It provides a means of transmitting signals of consent from a user to vendors working with publishers using a Consent Management Platform (CMP). CMPs centralize and manage transparency for the consent and objections of the end user. The user is therefore the principal focus of the TCF, which is designed to give users transparency over the use of their data and control over how their data could be used if consent is given.

How does it work?

The Framework consists of open-source technical specifications managed by the IAB Tech Lab and policies managed by IAB Europe. It has been designed to standardize the provision of notice about personal data processing and the transmission of signals about user choices and transparency related to data processing so that the digital advertising supply chain can continue to function in a way that aligns with GDPR requirements.

The Framework thus facilitates providing transparency and obtaining consent, and makes this information available across the digital advertising supply chain. To enable Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) to send consent signals and also enable technology providers (vendors) to receive relevant signals under a common Framework of policy adherence, IAB Europe requires registration to a central registry: the Global Vendor List (GVL) for vendors and CMP list for CMPs. The GVL centralizes participating vendors in one location and does so complete with an identification number and information about the ways companies intend to comply with the law. Publishers can use the GVL to view which vendors are a part of the Framework and determine which vendors to include in the transparency and consent user interfaces they make available on their sites.

The Global Vendor List (GVL)

The Global Vendor List (GVL) is a technical document that CMPs download from a domain managed and published by IAB Europe. It lists all registered and approved Vendors, as well as standard Purposes, Special Purposes, Features, Special Features, and Stacks. The information stored in the GVL is used to determine what legal disclosures must be made to the user.

CookieHub & TCF

CookieHub is a registered Consent Management Platform (CMP) and has passed the compliance checks required by IAB Europe's CMP Compliance Programme.