Consent Management Platform (CMP)
Software that shows privacy notices, collects and stores users' consent choices and passes them to tags, ad platforms and other vendors.
Without a working CMP, a site either tracks without valid consent and risks GDPR and ePrivacy enforcement, or loses the consent signals Google requires to serve personalized ads in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland.
A publisher installs a Google-certified CMP that supports IAB TCF v2.3, configures purposes and vendors, maps consent choices to Google Consent Mode in Google Tag Manager and checks that ad and analytics tags wait for the visitor's choice.
A CMP is only as compliant as its configuration: preticked boxes, hidden reject options or tags firing before consent remain violations. Google certification checks TCF integration, not full legal compliance, and consent rates vary with banner design.
The CMP displays the notice, stores the choice in a first-party cookie or local storage and exposes it to scripts through the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework TC string or Consent Mode parameters. Google has required publishers using AdSense, Ad Manager or AdMob to use a Google-certified CMP integrated with the TCF to serve personalized ads in the EEA and UK since January 2024, and in Switzerland since July 2024. Website Cookies are grouped by purpose.
Cybersecurity, Data Engineering
IAB Europe — TCF: Transparency & Consent Framework — https://iabeurope.eu/transparency-consent-framework/; Google Ad Manager Help — Google consent management requirements for serving ads in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland (for publishers) — https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/13554116