IAB Updates GDPR Compliance Tool

Digital advertisers will get some new help navigating the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

IAB Europe and the IAB Tech Lab Tuesday released Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) 2.0, which is a tool to help companies manage compliance under the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive.

The regime applies to any company that processes personal data--collection, storage, use, retention--in the EU, whether the company is based there or not.

Tech Lab board members include CBS Interactive, Facebook, Google, GroupM, Hearst Digital Media and Microsoft,

“While the TCF will continue to evolve to meet the needs of our dynamic industry, I am confident this update addresses all the feedback we have received from many DPAs throughout Europe, as well as the needs of each part of the digital advertising value chain," said IAB Europe CEO Townsend Feehan.

The tool was updated following input from stakeholders and regulators.

The TCF comprises tech specs and policies to help companies deliver targeted ads while remaining within the four legal corners of the EU privacy protection regime given they are processing data multiple national markets (28 of them, each with different views of compliance, IAB points out). That includes providing transparency about how the data is used and a process for consumers to object to that use.

Related: Advertisers Say FTC Must Cast Critical Eye on GDPR

The EU adopted the GDPR online privacy framework in May 2018. 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.