IAB TCF 2.0 support in the Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK
The Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK has support for the Interactive Advertising Bureau Transparency & Consent Framework, version 2.0 (IAB TCF 2.0). This guide shows the requirements for supporting IAB TCF 2.0 through Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK integrating with Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform, Audience Manager, Experience Events, Adobe Analytics, and Edge Network.
Additionally, the following guides are available to assist in learning how to integrate IAB TCF 2.0 with and without tags.
Getting started
In order to implement the Web SDK with IAB TCF 2.0, you are required to have a working understanding of the Experience Data Model (XDM) and Experience Events. Before you start, please review the following document:
- Experience Data Model (XDM) System overview: Standardization and interoperability are key concepts behind Adobe Experience Platform. Experience Data Model (XDM), driven by Adobe, is an effort to standardize customer experience data and define schemas for customer experience management.
Experience Platform integration
To send consent data to Adobe Experience Platform using the SDK, the following is required:
- A dataset whose schema is based on the XDM Individual Profile class and contains TCF 2.0 consent fields, enabled for use in Real-Time Customer Profile.
- A datastream set up with Platform and the Profile-enabled dataset mentioned above.
Please refer to the guide on TCF 2.0 compliance for instructions on creating the required datasets and datastream.
Audience Manager integration
Adobe Audience Manager (AAM) includes support for IAB TCF 2.0, which enables you to evaluate, honor, and forward customer privacy choices to downstream partners.
Experience Events and Adobe Analytics integration
Whereas the Real-Time CDP and Audience Manager’s audiences keep track of a customer’s current consent preferences, Experience Events can hold a customer’s consent preferences that were active when the event was collected.
To collect consent information on events, the following is required:
- A dataset based on the XDM Experience Event class, with the Experience Event privacy schema field group.
- A datastream set up with the XDM Experience Event dataset above.
For more information on how to convert an XDM Experience Event to an Analytics hit, start by reading the Analytics overview documentation.
Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK integration
The sections below describe the main integration points between IAB TCF 2.0 and Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK.
Default consent
Default consent is used when there is no consent preference already saved for a customer. This means the default consent options can control the behavior of Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK and change based on a customer’s region.
For example, if you have a customer that is not within the jurisdiction of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the default consent could be set to in, but inside the jurisdiction of GDPR, the default consent could be set to pending. Your Consent Management Platform (CMP) might detect the customer’s region and provide the flag gdprApplies to IAB TCF 2.0. This flag can be used to set the default consent.
For more information on default consent, refer to the default consent section in the SDK configuration documentation.
Setting consent when it changes
Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK has a setConsent command, which communicates your customer’s consent preferences to all the Adobe services using IAB TCF 2.0. If you are integrating with Real-Time CDP, this updates your customer’s profile. If you are integrating with Audience Manager, this updates your customer’s information. Calling this also sets a cookie with an all-or-nothing consent preference that controls whether future Experience Events are allowed to be sent. It is intended that this action is called whenever consent changes. On future page loads, the Edge Network consent cookie will be read to determine whether Experience Events can be sent, and whether an identity cookie can be set.
Similar to Audience Manager’s IAB TCF 2.0 integration, the Edge Network gives consent when a customer has provided their explicit consent to the following purposes:
- Purpose 1: Store and/or access information on a device
- Purpose 10: Develop and improve products
- Special Purpose 1: Ensure security, prevent fraud, and debug. (Per IAB TCF regulations, this is always consented to)
- Adobe Vendor Permission: Consent for Adobe (Vendor 565)
For more information on the setConsent command, read the documentation on Supporting Consent.
Adding Consent to Experience Events
Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK has a sendEvent command that collects an Experience Event. If you are integrating with Experience Events or Adobe Analytics and would like the consent preferences on every Experience Event, you should add the consent information to every sendEvent command.
For more information on the sendEvent command, read the documentation on tracking events.
Next steps
Now that you have a basic understanding of the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework 2.0, please refer to either of the guides on using IAB TCF 2.0 with tags or without tags.