All You Need to Know About Consent Management Platforms
Nicholas Ntovas, Business Strategy and Innovation
Business Strategist & Innovator Consent Management SaaS Platforms
What is Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software?
Companies use consent management platform (CMP) to legally capture a website or application user’s consent prior to tracking, collecting, sharing, selling, and processing the user’s data. CMP software notifies users on the ways their online activities may be tracked, the purposes for which those activities are tracked, the legal bases used to track them, and which specific entities and vendors seek to track them. Notifying the user and collecting their consent choices are facilitated by a pop-up banner on a website or within an application. Users are given the explicit choice to grant, refuse, or revoke consent to having their online activities collected, used, or sold by one, some, or all of these parties. The CMP tool, which has a legal basis to store consent data, will then pass the user’s explicit and granular consent choices on data collection to third parties like advertisers and publishers prior to those entities processing the user’s data.
CMP software was initially developed to assist companies in complying with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and can be used to capture consent under other data privacy laws or data protection regulations, as well. In order to process a user’s data under the GDPR, a minimum of one of the six lawful bases for processing data as cited under Article 6 of the GDPR must be met. The six bases include consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interest, public task, and legitimate interest. CMPs assist companies with processing under the lawful basis of consent. Some CMPs also enable users to exercise their right to object to legitimate interest bases, as well.
CMP software can also be used to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by powering a website’s “do not sell” button; the CCPA does not require a consent pop-up like GDPR, however.
What Does CMP Stand For?
In the data privacy and digital advertising industries, CMP stands for consent management platform. This acronym is sometimes used for consent management providers, as well.
What are the Common Features of Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software?
The following are some core features within CMP software:
Multi-language support: CMP software should offer multiple languages. In order to gain a user’s informed and explicit consent to process personal data, the user should be communicated with in their preferred language.
Customizable design: Many CMP providers offer customizable CSS design themes to ensure that the pop-up banner’s colors and fonts reflect the company’s branding. Having consistent branding in the pop-up improves end-user consent opt-in rates to allow tracking, which is why this feature is important.
Administration interface: CMPs should offer easy to understand, intuitive administrative interfaces, often with reporting features.
Mobile software development kit (SDK): For companies seeking to collect user consent within applications, having a mobile SDK is important.
Cross-domain and cross-device consent management: This enables companies to utilize user consent across domains and devices.
Analytics: Make sure the CM Platform you are evaluating has analytics reports on opt-in rates, consent percentages, A/B testing, geographical data, etc.
What are the Benefits of Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software?
Meet legal requirements: The main benefit of using a CMP is to meet legal requirements of data privacy and data protection regulations by lawfully processing user data.
Improve user opt-in rates: Using a CMP with a well-designed pop-up banner can improve user’s consent to processing opt-in rates. This is important for companies wishing to sell advertisements.
Who Uses Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software?
Since capturing user consent to use personal data is vital to companies doing business, especially within the European Union, many types of professionals may use CMP software. Most commonly, these professionals are from information technology (IT), data privacy and protection, or marketing backgrounds.
IT administrators: Given that CMP must integrate with a company’s websites and applications, many IT administrators deploy CMP software on behalf of their companies.
Data privacy and data protection professionals: Data privacy and data protection professionals may be responsible for their company’s use of CMP software, as this relates to their ongoing compliance with global data privacy regulations.
Marketing professionals: Marketers may utilize CMP software, in particular those working in adtech, martech, digital marketing, or e-commerce areas who need to work with consented data.
Software Related to Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software
Solutions that are related to CMP software include:
Cookie and website tracker scanning software: Cookie and tracker scanning software scans websites to identify and list what cookies, beacons, tags, tracking pixels, local objects, and other website tracking technologies, such as plug-ins or integrated content like videos, are present on company websites.
Privacy policy generator software: Privacy policy generator software helps companies generate and maintain privacy policies. Some CMP tools offer privacy policy management within their solutions.
Data privacy management software: Data privacy management software provides comprehensive solutions for companies to manage their privacy program, including replying to consumer requests or data subject requests (DSR/DSAR), mapping sensitive data, and more.
Customer data platform (CDP) software: CDPs are used to consolidate and integrate customer data into one single database. These tools offer marketing teams relevant insights needed to run campaigns. Though not universal, some CDP solutions offer consent management functions, as well.
Data management platform (DMP) software: DMP software analyzes company customer, audience, and marketing data by pulling in and storing data from multiple sources such as first-party websites and software, third-party data providers, and offline sources.
Publisher ad management software: Publisher ad management software is used by publishers to manage and sell ad inventory on their websites. This helps publishers monetize their content. There are multiple types of publisher adtech ad management software available on the market, including app monetization software, publisher ad server software, search monetization software, and supply side platform (SSP) software.
Advertiser campaign management software: Advertiser campaign management software is used by advertisers to buy, manage, and track ads online. Advertiser campaign management software can access various digital advertising channels including display, mobile, search, social, and video.
Challenges with Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software
Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges. Some things to consider include:
Legal review: It is important that companies seek the advice of their own legal teams to ensure the verbiage written within CMP pop-up banners meets their company’s unique requirements and obligations.
Geo specificity: Many companies want to customize their user experience to meet the regulatory requirements necessary for a specific location. For example, in the European Union, a consent banner is required, while in California, it is not.
Which Companies Should Buy Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software?
Any company that must comply with data privacy regulations that require obtaining user consent prior to processing their data, such as the European Union’s GDPR, should buy a CMP solution to ensure they are legally capturing and honoring user consents.
How to Buy Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software
It is important to identify a company’s unique requirements prior to selecting a consent management solution. For example, it is vital that buyers select a provider that supports the languages of their customer base. Businesses also need to decide where the user consent data will be stored, whether that be by the CMP provider or by the company itself. It may be important to the company that the CMP provider is approved and registered with the industry group that has set some standards for CMPs, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), as well.
Compare Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software Products
Create a list
The long list of requirements should include languages supported and the robustness of banner customization to promote user opt-in rates. Buyers must also consider whether the administration is simple and easy, if the CMP provider has prebuilt lists of common vendors and third parties, if they have template privacy policies and other documents that buyers can use, and whether the provider offers a mobile software development kit if they plan to use this with mobile applications.
Conduct demos
After narrowing down the selection, buyers must contact the vendors to schedule demonstrations of the solution. At each demo, buyers must be sure to ask the same questions and use case scenarios to best evaluate each product. Questions to consider including are: Does this support the languages we require? Can we customize the pop-up banners to match our branding? Does the vendor store the consent data or does the company? Is this product registered with the IAB TCF?
Selection of Consent Management Platform (CMP) Software
Choose a selection team
The software selection team should include the person responsible for setting up and maintaining the CMP software and likely someone from the company’s legal or compliance team to ensure it meets the company’s legal obligations.
Negotiation
Considering that these are relatively lightweight solutions, vendors may not be keen to negotiate on price and may stick to their standard pricing. Buyers may be able to negotiate for implementation assistance, however.
Final decision
Once the person responsible for setting up and maintaining the CMP software approves of the specific product and the company’s legal team approves the purchase, businesses should feel confident moving forward with a CMP tool.
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Nicholas Ntovas CM Consultant / GDPR Data Protection Practitioner
302.289.8192