Google has recently introduced new guidelines for Consent Management Providers (CMPs) that will ultimately force CMPs to implement the Total Consent Framework (TCF). If the requirements of this framework are not met, publishers will no longer be able to display tracking-based advertising on their websites. We have received a number of inquiries on this topic and would therefore like to explain our position in a short blog article.

Will Klaro! implement the requirements?

In general, the requirements are not technically difficult to meet, but they do require some adjustments to Klaro. In addition, all CMP providers must register with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and pay an annual fee of around €1,600. The IAB is a non-profit organization with close ties to the advertising industry.

We have been reluctant to make the necessary adjustments to Klaro as we do not consider the entire TCF framework to be privacy compliant. In our view, it is not possible for users to give their informed consent to tracking by potentially hundreds or thousands of providers. However, this is exactly what the TCF framework requires. For us, the framework is therefore not privacy-friendly and, in our view, is primarily aimed at shifting privacy risks from the advertising industry to publishers/website operators and CMP providers.

Even if we were to implement the requirements, they could only be used in the hosted version of Klaro, as the TCF framework is not open source friendly.

Klaro is therefore not currently planning to implement these requirements.

What does this mean for my website?

If you do not use Google advertising technologies (e.g. Google Ads) on your website, this development has no impact. You can continue to use Klaro and thus obtain the consent of your users in a privacy-compliant and privacy-friendly manner. You can also continue to use other Google technologies such as Google Maps or the Google Tag Manager in combination with Klaro.

If you use Google advertising on your website, you can still use Klaro, but you will probably only see non-personalized ads. This can also affect the monetization of your website. Klaro is not the appropriate CMP in this case, you should choose a commercial alternative.

Do you have any questions?

If you have any further questions, please write to us at klaro@kiprotect.com, we are always here for you!