• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 14, 2023

Online publishers and brands that greet website visitors with “cookie banners” may soon be able to integrate the industry's AdChoices icon into the banners' interfaces, the self-regulatory group Digital Advertising Alliance said Tuesday.

Current cookie banners (and other forms of consent management platforms) typically intercept first-time website visitors, and ask them to accept or reject certain uses of their data.

The AdChoices icon and link -- which often reside at the bottom of a publisher's or brand's website -- aim to notify consumers about how data collected across multiple sites is used for ad targeting, and to allow people to opt out of receiving ads based on that type of tracking data.

The Digital Advertising Alliance is testing the integration of AdChoices into cookie banners with three companies that offer consent-management platforms -- TrustArc, Evidon by Crownpeak, and Didomi.

The results of those tests should be available within the next few months, according to Lou Mastria, executive director of the Digital Advertising Alliance. The program will roll out after testing is completed.

He adds that the opportunity to integrate AdChoices into cookie banners reflects “a new way to talk to consumers about privacy.”

The initiative to integrate AdChoices is being released by the Digital Advertising Alliance in the U.S. and affiliated organizations in Europe, Argentina and Canada.