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IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF)

Not legal advice

The framework as we understand it on 5 November 2026. See the overview for what these pages are and are not.

What it is​

The IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework is an industry standard for passing a visitor's consent to the hundreds of companies in programmatic advertising. A registered consent tool shows the visitor the purposes and the vendors from IAB Europe's Global Vendor List, writes the answer into a TC string, and answers the page's ad code through the __tcfapi interface.

  • Current version: TCF v2.4 (Policies v5.0.b, technical specifications published on 23 July 2026). Consent tools had to support it on the web by 23 October 2026; mobile apps and connected TV have until 23 February 2027. Since v2.3, the TC string must list the vendors that were disclosed to the visitor.
  • Who needs it: publishers that earn from programmatic ads in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. Google requires a Google-certified consent tool that uses TCF for AdSense, Ad Manager and AdMob there; without one, only limited or non-personalised ads are served.
  • Who does not: an advertiser using Google Ads, Meta or Microsoft Ads with Consent Mode and the vendors' own signals does not need TCF.
  • Consent tools register with IAB Europe, pay a yearly fee and pass a validation test to receive a CMP id.

ConnectWiz and TCF​

ConnectWiz is not a registered TCF consent tool today: its banner does not show the Global Vendor List and does not write a TC string. TCF support is planned.

What works now:

  • If your site already has a TCF consent tool, leave ConnectWiz cookie consent off. ConnectWiz reads your tool's answer through __tcfapi — analytics needs purposes 1 and 8 or 9, marketing purposes 1, 3, 4 and 7 — and the chat, forms and attribution follow it.
  • US programmatic ads read the IAB GPP string instead; ConnectWiz sends it — see US state privacy laws.
  • Amazon accepts the Amazon Consent Signal instead of TCF — see Amazon Consent Signal.

What you still need to do​

  • If you show AdSense, Ad Manager or AdMob ads to visitors in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, use a Google-certified TCF consent tool for now, with ConnectWiz in the read-only mode above.
  • If you are an advertiser only, Google does not ask you for a TCF tool: Consent Mode carries your visitors' choices to Google tags.

Sources​