• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 28, 2025

PALM SPRINGS, CA -- Yahoo DSP became the first demand-side platform on Tuesday to announce the adoption of the IAB’s Data Transparency Labels, what the industry is calling a “nutrition” label.

Data nutrition labels, which Yahoo plans to integrate in early 2025, will give advertisers a simple way to understand their data — where it comes from, how recent it is, and how segments are built. This major step toward making data transparent becomes the initial step making data easier and more accessible for advertisers.

Yahoo believes that by integrating IAB Tech Lab's Data Transparency Labels, it gives advertisers information into the origin, recency, and segmentation criteria of data segments used for campaigns. This allows for better decision-making, increased campaign performance, and greater accountability across the data supply chain, the company said.

The shift is part of a broader strategy to advance innovation, foster transparency, and ensure performance for advertisers worldwide.

"Transparency is critical to reinforce trust and drive better outcomes for advertisers," Giovanni Gardelli, vice president of DSP data products at Yahoo, stated. "Our adoption of IAB Tech Lab's Data Transparency Labels reflects our commitment to delivering the highest level of clarity and quality to Yahoo DSP partners. We are proud to lead the industry in this transformative initiative."

The Tech Lab first released this model in 2019 to support the standard. The label looked similar to a nutrition label on a food product sold in stores. It was developed in part by the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Tech Lab, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).

Adoption of the labels has lagged among DSPs, supply-side platforms (SSPs), data brokers and data management platforms (DMPs), but data governance could become the reason why more companies adopt this practice.