IAB Tech Lab Launches the Transparency Centre to Further Enable Supply Chain Accountability

Effective transparency requires infrastructure to support it and this week, IAB Tech Lab hit a major milestone with its launch of the highly anticipated Transparency Centre. This first of its kind central hub is a one-stop resource where buyers, sellers and ad tech can look-up which standards media partners have implemented as well as their level of compliance, certification program results, and more. The hub will serve to ensure a safe, privacy-centric ad experience for consumers. The stakes are currently particularly high in privacy compliance and in an ever-changing global regulatory regime, this resource provides peace of mind while lowering risks associated with working with third parties. 

According to newly appointed IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsure, “The Transparency Center has been designed and built to provide a single source of truth that ensures a safe and reliable transaction between buyer and seller. This is the first iteration and it will continue to evolve and grow over time, and add more programs and resources to serve the entire advertising ecosystem. Ultimately, we aim to have buyers and sellers leverage the Transparency Center to ensure that they are working with responsible partners that utilize standards to combat fraud and enable privacy-compliant ad targeting in a cookie-less ecosystem.” 

The IAB Tech Lab Transparency Center will initially include the following components:  

  • Supply Chain Validation will now reside within the Transparency Center. It aggregates metadata about the supply chain, including ads.txt (authorized digital sellers), sellers.json, as well as other supply chain management tools. 
  • Global Industry Compliance Registry, which provides detailed industry compliance and certification status of supply chain partners around the world. 
  • Advertising System Aggregation, which identifies information about supply chain partners across different advertising systems as well as their business classification. 

In the ever-shifting digital advertising ecosystem, sharing information about how you transact with your partners is integral; such as what standards you adhere to, compliance programs by which you’re certified, and corporate identifiers by which you operate. This metadata can better help the buy and sell side transact with confidence, and as the centre continues to evolve, other key attributes will be added including, the IAB Gold Standard which will soon be made available for Canadian organizations. 

For more information on the Transparency Center, visit https://iabtechlab.com/transparency-center/ and for more information on the IAB Gold Standard and how Canadian companies can get certified please reach out to committees@iabcanada.com