Tools for 2019 to Keep you Compliant

GDPR & URLs

When you get to part of the GDPR you inevitably deal with how to gain consent from your clients and prospective clients. IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab released the Transparency and Consent Framework where you can download it, and gain a ‘consent string’ which must be present, that indicates having gotten consent from the visitor as a yes or no option, and it applies to vendors on the Global Vendor List. The string is long and must be there, but IAB Tech Lab says that you should keep the URL under 2,000 bytes and can do that by switching from HTTP GET to POST for better integrations.

There are many things which contribute toward the URL length growing in size, from anything dealing with security of the site, digitally stored certificates or IDs and plenty more. [read]

PrivacyChain

PrivacyChain has been launched and IAB Tech Lab is excited about it, they want feedback which can only stand to make the program better. The idea is how to track user privacy consents by using data supply chains.

The protocol by IAB helps by making it a lot easier to handle user data and to control how it is shared while allowing users control to opt in or opt out. It’s also sharable between the publisher and their advertisers with a method to help standardize consent management.

Best? It’s completely compliant.

User Data

We all know what we cannot do, so how does a business go about gathering any user data if there are so many controls in place?

One of the biggest things to know would be if someone doesn’t want to be advertised to at all, which may be indicated by an ad-blocking app, add-on, or program. This can tell a business plenty about the prospective client’s interest before even testing them.

It can help a business know to tread lightly and to be very clear about seeking permission and gaining trust. One thing isn’t about to go anywhere, and that is the need to seek trust, gain permission, to be completely honest and transparent to clients and prospects, and to value a client as much as they’re actually worth.

The world isn’t getting smaller, but it’s getting much more difficult to navigate. In the earliest 20 years of the internet, things were allowed to run unchecked for quite some time before anyone decided to change things.

When AOL had nearly a monopoly, things changed. When Napster was shut down, and music ‘seeding’ and torrenting were considered piracy – things changed. As technology has changed, so too has the shape of the internet and for all the wonderful good it has done, it has allowed many unfortunate things to happen to good people by those who seek to make victims of them using it as a tool. Things have changed yet again.

It’s so important to protect user data and to value what you are able to gain from your audience by not selling that data to other companies.

Https://Encryption

The need for a secure layer of control on any site is long past due. This is something vitally important for any website to have, and is the biggest indicator to visitors that you care about their security and safety on your site.

Many haven’t made the switch because it’s cumbersome, having to get certificates, and ensuring those certificates don’t expire, not to mention server-load to handle that encryption in terms of load time.

None of those things outweigh having it, however, especially not in today’s climate. You can expect to be affected by not having a secure site if you want to appear in any Google search, particularly after the MasterCard data deal.

Tools For The Future

There are plenty of tools and tips for proceeding through 2019 without a misstep on our blogroll as well, and don’t forget about IAB Tech Lab. There are a whole host of non-profit and not-for-profit companies out there who are giving services to people in an effort to see a fully compliant advertising industry.

Selected images created with Freepik