Glossary/Adtech & Programmatic/Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF)
Adtech & Programmatic
Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF)
IAB Europe's standard for passing users' GDPR consent choices from consent platforms to publishers and ad tech vendors.
By Brandon Mina·CEO, BrandPilot AI·Updated November 2026
Appears in Lesson 6 of Programmatic 101
Short answer
The Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) is IAB Europe's industry standard for capturing and passing users' consent choices under the GDPR and ePrivacy rules. Consent management platforms record choices and encode them in a standardized string. Publishers and ad tech vendors read that signal to determine whether they may process personal data for advertising.