IAB launches new privacy compliance tool

This week, IAB launched a new tool for standardizing privacy practices in digital advertising. The IAB Diligence Platform was created in partnership with privacy compliance company SafeGuard Privacy.

The tool aims at making it easier for advertisers and publishers to vet adtech partners in an increasingly regulated digital advertising space.

Why we care. With new privacy laws and enforcement, non-compliance can come with steep fines. Consumers are also more aware and protective of their online privacy. This new tool gives digital marketers the ability to compare ad partners on the basis of compliance. This added confidence is likely to help grow the ad business, and maybe even contribute to building more trust with consumers down the road.

IAB Diligence Platform. The platform focuses on data privacy practices and state laws governing them. To participate, vendors fill out a questionnaire about their data practices, tailored to their specific role in the adtech supply chain. Vendors fill the questionnaire out once and can choose when to share their responses during digital ad transactions. These responses are shared through a hub on the IAB Diligence Platform, which is open to both IAB members and non-members.

For advertisers and publishers. Digital advertisers can use this tool to evaluate the compliance of demand-side platforms (DSPs), while publishers can use the platform for supply-side adtech platforms (SSPs).

Dig deeper: 3 privacy-centric solutions for marketing compliance

Each side of the digital ad industry must answer a different set of questions about privacy practices. The questionnaires were developed by industry privacy lawyers and over a half dozen law firms that participated in the IAB Legal Affairs Council.

The IAB Diligence Platform is built on the SafeGuard Privacy Platform, which includes updated state law assessments and a vendor compliance hub.