The Quantcast Choice CMP was sold to InMobi in 2023, and is now InMobi Choice CMP.
IAB Canada invited Heinz Baumann, Head of Product Management, Privacy and Identity at Quantcast, to talk about the most relevant acronym in our industry–the CMP (Consent Management Platform). In the 1 hour virtual discussion, Heinz stressed that privacy concerns have never been more top of mind for consumers and businesses alike. With the introduction of privacy regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe in 2016 and the newly tabled Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada, the need for enhanced transparency and accountability as well as increased control over individual consent to use personal data has never been more critical.
To help businesses understand how to equip consumers with consent first solutions, Heinz provided insight into what CMPs are, how they work, and potential tools.
What Is a Consent Management Platform (CMP)?
A CMP is a tool to help manage compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and soon Canada’s PIPEDA, using the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) or another industry-wide developed framework (e.g., US privacy). According to Heinz, “a CMP empowers the owners of domains to obtain, manage, and propagate consumer consent to share their data on the site or with associated vendors.”
How Does a CMP Work?
At its most basic level, when “a user visits a web page, they can agree or disagree to the collection of their data or get more information and possibly tweak the parameters of their consumer consent.”
How does this populate through the ecosystem, and why is this important?
Heinz broke down the two scenarios and their workflows:
- User Provides Consent: “If the user agrees to the collection of their data, the string is created and gets passed through the ad exchange that also confirms consent was given; it then continues to push it to the DSP (Demand Side Platform), which will do the bid request. With that data, it will serve the best ad that would potentially have a higher click-through rate.”
- User Declines: However, “if a user disagrees with the collection of their data, you have no consent to use their data. Most exchanges will pass this data through, allowing the creative vendors to ultimately make the decision whether to match creative.” As a result, when a user does provide consent to use their data, there will be a lack of value in the ad and, therefore, the ads served will garner a low click-through rate.
Product Spotlight: Quantcast Choice
Collecting and actioning on consent requires tools. Quantcast Choice is a free and powerful consent management platform built for publishers and advertisers to meet key privacy requirements from ePrivacy Directive, GDPR, and CCPA. With Quantcast Choice, you can easily control, customise, and manage consumers’ consent preferences. Some of the key features include: universal tag, vendor management, audience insights–all accessed through a central portal.
To get started with choosing the right CMP tool, you should first consult your legal team. Secondly, select the right CMP for your needs, and finally, complete a vendor audit. “You want to make sure a CMP supports your regions ‘TCF,’ and you want it to maximize opt-in rates in the most compliant way. You also want to make sure it is easy to configure and customize and has advanced features to increase compliance and insights while perfecting revenue,” said Heinz. “It is important to complete a vendor audit; not all vendors are part of the TCF, [so] these vendors won’t receive signals that establish a legal basis that is required by the regulation.”
Interested in hearing more?Watch the full IAB Product Spotlight Discussion here.