Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe has worked with the IAB Tech Lab to release the second iteration of its Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), which was introduced to support digital advertising companies in complying with GDPR. It comes just a couple of months after the framework was criticised by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for being non-compliant.

The TCF was reviewed for 12 months, during which time it was subject to feedback from all sectors of the digital advertising industry and nine meetings with Data Protection Authorities from around Europe.

The TCF 2.0 enables consumers to not only grant or withhold consent but also to exercise their ‘right to object’ to data being processed. Furthermore, consumers gain more control over whether and how vendors may use certain features of data processing, such as using precise geolocation.

Meanwhile, publishers are able to restrict the purposes for which personal data is processed by vendors on their websites on a per-vendor basis.

 “The original TCF was launched to help a complex industry value chain manage their obligations under new regulations, notably the GDPR. With the number of constituents involved and disparate regulatory interpretations across multiple jurisdictions, it was essential that the evolution of the framework was handled sensitively, with the final specifications able to be adopted in a manner consistent with differing business models in a wide range of operational markets,” said Townsend Feehan, IAB Europe CEO.

“Whilst 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.”

To create the updated framework, the TCF steering group drafted new policy documents and engaged with IAB Tech Lab, which managed the technical specifications. This steering group was made up of representation from 10 national IABs, 55 organisations, and EU-level associations, publishers, media owners, technology providers, and media agencies.

TCF 2.0 will operate alongside TCF 1.1 until the end of Q1 2020, giving publishers and consent management platforms time to adopt the improved framework and giving vendors time to implement the code needed to adhere to the protocol.