Global Privacy Platform (GPP)

The dominant open industry standard for multi-jurisdictional privacy signal transmission in programmatic advertising, maintained by IAB Tech Lab

The Global Privacy Platform (GPP) is an open technical standard developed and maintained by IAB Tech Lab designed to streamline the communication of user privacy preferences and consent signals across the programmatic advertising ecosystem. Rather than requiring separate integrations for each regional privacy regulation, GPP provides a unified container string that can carry consent and opt-out signals for multiple jurisdictions simultaneously — including GDPR (via TCF), CCPA/CPRA (via the US Privacy String and US National Privacy Technical Specification), and other regional frameworks. GPP was introduced to address the growing complexity of global privacy compliance as regulations proliferated across the US states and internationally. Publishers, CMPs (Consent Management Platforms), DSPs, SSPs, and ad servers can implement a single GPP integration and receive structured, machine-readable privacy signals regardless of the user's jurisdiction. The framework uses a modular architecture where each regulatory section is encoded as a discrete 'section' within the GPP string, allowing new regulations to be added without breaking existing integrations. As a technical standard rather than a commercial product, GPP is freely available and open-source, governed by IAB Tech Lab's working groups with input from major industry stakeholders including publishers, ad tech vendors, and privacy advocates. Its adoption is considered critical infrastructure for privacy-compliant programmatic advertising, and it is increasingly required by major DSPs and SSPs as a condition of doing business. GPP effectively supersedes and extends earlier frameworks like the IAB US Privacy String and works alongside TCF 2.x for European consent.