As privacy regulation tightens and enforcement muscle grows, the digital advertising industry is under mounting pressure to prove—not just promise—responsible data practices. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is responding with a new initiative designed to bring order, consistency, and credibility to one of AdTech’s most fragmented processes: vendor privacy due diligence.
This week, the IAB announced the launch of the IAB Authorized Assessor Program, a framework that standardizes how brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms evaluate vendor privacy risk. The program debuts with FTI Consulting’s Technology segment as its first authorized assessor, officially licensed to conduct vendor assessments using the IAB Diligence Platform, powered by SafeGuard Privacy.
In plain terms: the IAB is moving privacy diligence out of spreadsheets, email chains, and bespoke questionnaires—and into a standardized, auditable system backed by third-party expertise.
Why This Matters Now
Timing is everything, and the IAB’s move comes as regulators sharpen their focus on accountability across the data supply chain. Most notably, the California Privacy Protection Agency’s (CPPA) new risk assessment regulation, effective January 1, 2026, raises the bar for how companies assess, document, and mitigate privacy risks tied to data processing partners.
Just as significant are the regulation’s liability-shifting provisions, which increase exposure for brands and platforms if their vendors mishandle personal data. In that environment, “trust us” is no longer an acceptable compliance strategy.
The Authorized Assessor Program aims to give IAB members a defensible, repeatable way to demonstrate due diligence—something regulators, auditors, and enterprise legal teams increasingly expect.
From One-Off Reviews to a Shared Framework
Historically, vendor privacy assessments in AdTech have been inconsistent at best and superficial at worst. Large brands often send lengthy questionnaires to hundreds of partners, while smaller players rely on self-attestations or informal reviews. The result is duplicated effort, uneven standards, and blind spots that only surface when something goes wrong.
The IAB Diligence Platform was built to address that fragmentation by providing a single, standardized set of diligence questions aligned with advertising-specific data flows and privacy risks. The Authorized Assessor Program adds a critical missing layer: expert validation.
With FTI Technology as an authorized assessor, IAB members can now pair the platform’s standardized workflows with hands-on advisory services that interpret responses, stress-test claims, and evaluate risk in context.
What FTI Technology Brings to the Table
FTI Technology isn’t new to high-stakes compliance work. The firm advises 90 of the Fortune Global 100 and all of the world’s top 100 law firms, many of which operate in heavily regulated, data-intensive environments. That pedigree matters when privacy diligence shifts from a check-the-box exercise to a board-level concern.
Under the program, FTI Technology will provide three core capabilities to IAB members:
- Expert advisory services: Access to specialists in data privacy, AdTech, and information governance who help organizations design risk-based frameworks tailored to their business models and vendor ecosystems.
- Deep review and analysis: Evaluation of vendor responses submitted through the IAB Diligence Platform, with risk scoring based on client-specific criteria rather than generic thresholds.
- Industry-specific stress testing: Verification of responses for high-risk vendors and high-risk questions, focusing on real-world privacy exposures unique to digital advertising.
This approach positions the Authorized Assessor Program somewhere between traditional consulting and pure software. It’s more scalable than bespoke assessments, but far more rigorous than automated checkbox tools.
A Privacy Play With Business Implications
Beyond compliance, the IAB is framing the program as a way to improve operational efficiency and deal velocity. For brands and agencies, standardized diligence reduces the time spent vetting partners. For vendors, it minimizes repetitive questionnaires and conflicting requirements from multiple clients.
In theory, a shared framework could also become a competitive differentiator. Vendors with strong, verified privacy practices may find it easier to win business as buyers lean on assessor-backed diligence rather than internal reviews.
Michael Hahn, Executive Vice President and General Counsel at the IAB, underscored that balance between rigor and scalability. By pairing FTI Technology’s expertise with the IAB Diligence Platform, he said, the organization is offering “premium expert resources backed by a standardized, technology-enabled diligence framework”—something more efficient than one-off assessments and more consultative than software alone.
SafeGuard Privacy’s Quiet Role
While FTI Technology takes center stage as the first authorized assessor, SafeGuard Privacy plays a crucial supporting role as the exclusive technology provider behind the IAB Diligence Platform.
The platform is designed to deliver a documented, auditable, privacy-first process—a feature that becomes increasingly important as regulators ask not just what companies assessed, but how and when. In an enforcement scenario, that audit trail could prove invaluable.
Setting a Precedent for the Industry
The Authorized Assessor Program also signals a broader shift in how industry bodies approach regulation. Rather than waiting for mandates, the IAB is attempting to define a de facto standard that aligns with regulatory expectations while remaining practical for a fast-moving ecosystem.
If widely adopted, the program could influence how privacy diligence is handled across programmatic advertising, measurement, identity, and martech integrations. It may also prompt rival trade groups or global regulators to look more favorably on industry-led compliance frameworks—provided they deliver real accountability.
What Comes Next
For now, FTI Technology is the program’s first authorized assessor, but not necessarily the last. Over time, the IAB could expand the roster, creating an ecosystem of licensed assessors operating against the same baseline standards.
That would mark a meaningful evolution for AdTech: fewer bespoke processes, clearer expectations, and a stronger shared defense against regulatory risk.
As privacy enforcement ramps up globally, initiatives like this suggest the industry is finally treating due diligence as infrastructure—not an afterthought.
