What is IAB TCF? (Transparency and Consent Framework)

Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) is a standardised method for all industry stakeholders such as website publishers, ad tech vendors and advertisers to ensure transparency and user choice requirements meet the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The TCF intends to provide a harmonised platform to comply with data privacy across Europe.

The TCF operates through consent management platforms (CMPs) that are displayed to website visitors and allow them to consent to/deny their data being used for specified purposes.

Key to the TCF is Transparency and Consent String (TC String), which is a coded character string generated by the CMP that encapsulates the user’s preferences in a standardised manner. This is then subsequently communicated to all parties involved in the ad tech ecosystem to indicate the user’s preferences.