IAB TCF
The IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) is the advertising industry's standard, run by IAB Europe, for collecting and passing on users' consent and objections to hundreds of advertising vendors in a single encoded string.The TCF defines a list of standardized purposes (storing information on a device, selecting basic ads, creating a personalized ads profile, measuring ad performance and so on), a Global Vendor List of registered advertising companies, a consent management platform (CMP) API, and the TC String that encodes what a user accepted or objected to for each purpose and vendor. Version 2.2, mandatory since November 2023, removed the legitimate interest option for advertising personalization and standardized the user-facing texts.
The Belgian Data Protection Authority found on 2 February 2022 that the TC String is personal data, that IAB Europe acted as a controller and that the framework breached the GDPR, and fined IAB Europe 250,000 euros. The Court of Justice confirmed on 7 March 2024 (C-604/22) that the TC String is personal data and that IAB Europe can be a joint controller for the recording of users' preferences. The Brussels Market Court ruled on 14 May 2025: it annulled the decision for procedural reasons, confirmed the fine and the reasoning, and rejected joint controllership for the processing that happens within the real-time bidding protocol itself.
Google requires a TCF-integrated, Google-certified CMP for AdSense, Ad Manager and AdMob ads shown to visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. Cookiequiet is not such a CMP; publishers serving those ads need one for the ads, while Google Consent Mode covers Analytics and Ads conversion tracking.