• by Wendy Davis , November 2, 2023

The IAB Tech Lab is unveiling a new specification aimed at helping digital ad companies comply with consumers' requests to delete their data.

The organization describes the new “Data Deletion Request Specification” as a “signaling mechanism” that will enable consumers to exercise their right to have data about themselves discarded.

“To support adtech, we need a protocol that successfully communicates data deletion requests to participants, ensuring all related parties who share data can receive the request signal,” the IAB Tech Lab writes in a description of the new specification.

Twelve states in the U.S. recently passed privacy laws that require companies to comply with residents' requests for data deletion. Laws in some other countries also require businesses to shed consumers' data upon request.

The specification will be integrated into the Global Privacy Platform, unveiled last year, which aims to transmit information about users' privacy preferences to the various companies involved in serving digital ads.

The IAB Tech Lab previously offered a specification pegged to the California Consumer Privacy Act -- which includes a provision requiring companies to delete consumers' data upon request.

The organization plans to deprecate that specification in January.

“As privacy legislation evolves across California, other US state laws, and global jurisdictions ... the data deletion request framework needs to also evolve,” the IAB Tech Lab writes in a draft of the new framework.

The IAB will accept comments until December 2 on the draft framework.