GPP (the Global Privacy Platform) is a technical framework developed by the IAB Tech Lab that standardizes how privacy, consent, and consumer-choice signals are transmitted across the advertising supply chain. It is designed to carry the signals required by many different privacy regimes in a single, consistent container, rather than requiring a separate mechanism for each jurisdiction.
Note: GPP is sometimes referred to informally as the "Global Privacy Protocol," but its official name from the IAB Tech Lab is the Global Privacy Platform.
What problem GPP solves
Before GPP, the industry relied on separate, jurisdiction-specific signals — for example, the IAB Europe TCF (Transparency & Consent Framework) string for GDPR and the US Privacy string for CCPA. As more U.S. states and other regions passed their own privacy laws, maintaining a distinct signal for each became impractical.
The Global Privacy Platform consolidates these into one string that can encapsulate multiple "sections," including the IAB Europe TCF, the IAB Canada TCF, and the U.S. state-level privacy signals. A single GPP string can therefore communicate the applicable consent and opt-out choices for a user regardless of which privacy framework governs the request.
How GPP is used in the bid request
In programmatic advertising, GPP signals are passed within the bid request so that every party in the supply chain — the SSP, the DSP, and the buyer — can honor the user's privacy choices for the jurisdiction that applies. The GPP string is accompanied by a section identifier (GPP SID) that tells recipients which privacy sections are present in the string.
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