Overview
Publishers can use any IAB-compliant CMP & Google certified alongside Freestar's technology.
These CMPs must be able to pass a TCF consent string in GDPR geos and a GPP US national or state-level string in US geos.
Follow these instructions to verify and test your CMP with Freestar.
GDPR Requirements
In GDPR geos you are required to serve a TCF 2.2/2.3 compliant CMP.
The following settings are required to ensure full compatibility with Google's advertising policies and Freestar's technology. For guidance on your specific GDPR compliance strategy, we recommend consulting with your legal counsel.
Purpose Consent
- Enable Purpose Consent 1 (Store and/or access information on a device)
- Enable Purpose Consent 3 (Create a personalized ads profile)
- Enable Purpose Consent 4 (Select personalized ads)
- Enable Purpose Consent 10 (Develop and improve products)
Legitimate Interests
- Enable Legitimate Interest 2 (Select basic ads)
- Enable Legitimate Interest 7 (Measure ad performance)
- Enable Legitimate Interest 9 (Apply market research to generate audience insights)
- Enable Legitimate Interest 10 (Develop and improve products)
Purpose Type |
Required By |
Purposes |
User Consent |
1, 3, 4 |
|
Legitimate interest |
2, 7, 9, 10 |
|
User Consent |
Freestar |
1 & 10 |
You can choose to pass Purposes 2, 7, 9 & 10 as user consent only, but:
- If a user rejects consent, legitimate interest will not apply.
- This removes the option to serve Limited Ads / Non-Personalised Ads when consent is rejected.
Whitelist Freestar and Google as a Vendor
| Vendor Name | Vendor ID |
Publisher First |
850 |
755 |
Additional Whitelisting
To maximize revenue, we recommend that publishers whitelist all IAB vendors available in the CMP. If only Freestar is enabled, ads will still be served, but overall revenue may be reduced. It’s especially important to ensure Google is included in the list. Without it, only Prebid demand will be available, and we will miss out on revenue from AdX.
Further Reading
US Requirements
A growing number of US states require websites to provide consumers with a way to opt out of the selling and sharing of personal information. This is typically done via a resurfacing link in the footer of the page (e.g., “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information”).
Freestar recommends that publishers consult with their own legal counsel to determine the appropriate compliance strategy for their business based on their audience and risk profile. Your CMP should be configured to send the appropriate GPP signals based on the guidance from your legal counsel. For a current list of states with active privacy laws, we recommend consulting authoritative industry resources.
GPP US National & State Signals
Under the IAB GPP (Global Privacy Platform) framework, publishers have two compliant options to transmit this signal:
- Use the US National signal (usnat) across all US traffic. This provides a single, comprehensive signal covering all applicable states.
- Pass the specific state-level signal for each required state (e.g., usca for California, usva for Virginia, etc.).
Further Reading
USP (deprecated)
The USP signal was deprecated in January 2024, with the industry moving toward GPP. Because not all demand partners have fully adopted GPP yet, it is recommended to pass both USP and GPP signals during this transition period, where possible.
Passing both helps ensure:
- Maximum bidder compatibility
- No lost revenue due to missing signals
- A smoother transition to full GPP adoption
Once GPP is fully standardised across the industry, USP can be safely removed.
Canada Requirements
Canada has its own privacy requirements, and consent rules can vary by province. Quebec in particular has stricter laws that generally require some form of explicit opt-in for certain data uses. The rest of Canada has lighter requirements, but still expects users to be properly informed before their data is collected or used.
Because the rules can differ depending on your audience and how you handle data, we recommend checking with your legal team on the level of consent you should collect in Canada and Quebec. Your CMP can then be configured to send the appropriate GPP/TCF signals based on their guidance.