TrustArc Implementation Guide

TrustArc and Ours Privacy work together to provide a comprehensive consent management solution that supports healthcare, GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy regulations. This guide explains the capabilities, operating modes, and integration patterns available when using TrustArc as your Consent Management Platform (CMP).

Overview

TrustArc controls when the Ours Privacy SDK loads and provides granular consent data that flows through your entire data pipeline. This approach delivers:

Regulatory Compliance: Full support for GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, LGPD, and healthcare regulations
Granular Control: Category-based and vendor-specific consent management
Complete Audit Trail: Visibility into every consent decision and change
Flexible Integration: Works with any TrustArc configuration or consent strategy

Operating Modes

Ours Privacy supports three distinct operating modes for consent management with TrustArc, each offering different levels of data collection and consent enforcement:

Mode 1: Strict Consent Mode (Zero Data Collection)

Ours Privacy SDK is not loaded until explicit consent is granted through TrustArc, ensuring zero data collection before user permission.

How it works:

TrustArc controls when the Ours Privacy SDK loads
No data is sent to Ours Privacy until consent is granted
Complete control over tracking initiation
Zero data collection before user permission

Capabilities:

Zero data collection before consent
Complete control over tracking initiation
Full audit trail of consent decisions
Support for granular consent categories (analytics, marketing, functional, necessary)

Mode 2: Mapper-Controlled Mode (Recommended)

Ours Privacy loads immediately and collects all events, but the mapping layer stops dispatch to destinations based on consent conditions.

How it works:

Ours Privacy SDK loads immediately and collects all events
Consent status is passed as event properties
Ours Privacy mappers conditionally route events to destinations based on consent
Events without proper consent are filtered out at the mapping layer

Capabilities:

Track consent banner interactions and decisions
Monitor consent change patterns
Debug consent-related issues
Maintain analytics on consent compliance
Granular control over which destinations receive data

Use Cases:

Marketing teams needing consent analytics
Product teams optimizing consent flows
Compliance teams monitoring consent rates
Organizations wanting comprehensive consent tracking

Mode 3: Destination-Level Consent Mode

Ours Privacy always dispatches events to destinations, but passes consent information to destinations that support consent-level fields.

How it works:

Ours Privacy SDK loads immediately and collects all events
All events are sent to destinations regardless of consent status
Consent information is passed as properties to destinations
Individual destinations handle consent enforcement based on their own capabilities

Important: This mode is destination-specific and not all destinations support consent-level fields. Only destinations with built-in consent handling capabilities can properly respect consent in this mode.

Capabilities:

Always-on data collection
Destination-level consent enforcement
Reduced mapping complexity
Real-time data flow

Limitations:

Not all destinations support consent fields
Less granular control than mapper-controlled mode
Requires destination-specific configuration
May not provide complete consent compliance for all destinations

Choosing the Right Mode

The choice between these modes depends on your organization's privacy requirements, compliance needs, and technical architecture. We recommend:

Consult with your privacy officer and/or legal team to determine the appropriate consent management approach for your use case
Reach out to us to start a conversation about privacy and consent management strategies

Our team can help you evaluate your specific requirements and recommend the best approach for your organization.

Consent Categories and Capabilities

Standard Consent Categories

TrustArc provides four standard consent categories that map directly to Ours Privacy:

Necessary Cookies - Always enabled, required for site functionality
Functional Cookies - Enhanced functionality and personalization
Analytics Cookies - Performance measurement and site optimization
Marketing Cookies - Advertising and targeting capabilities

Advanced Consent Features

Note: You can read the geographic state from the Ours Privacy mapping layer and push your consent decisions to the mapping layer.

Geographic consent rules - Different consent requirements by region
Time-based consent - Consent expiration and renewal handling
Consent versioning - Track changes in consent policies over time
Consent analytics - Monitor consent rates and patterns

Compliance Capabilities

GDPR Compliance

TrustArc with Ours Privacy delivers comprehensive GDPR compliance:

Explicit consent collection - Clear, unambiguous consent mechanisms
Consent withdrawal - Easy user consent withdrawal and data deletion
Data minimization - Only collect data for consented purposes
Audit trail - Complete record of all consent decisions and changes

CCPA/CPRA Compliance

For California privacy regulations:

Do Not Sell signals - Respect user opt-out preferences
Right to know - Provide transparency about data collection
Right to delete - Support data deletion requests
Opt-out mechanisms - Easy ways for users to opt out

Healthcare/HIPAA Compliance

Specialized compliance for healthcare organizations:

PHI protection - Ensure protected health information is handled properly
Consent documentation - Maintain detailed consent records
Audit capabilities - Complete audit trail for compliance reviews
Data segmentation - Separate healthcare data from marketing data

Mapping and Routing Capabilities

Destination-Based Routing

Ours Privacy's mapping layer routes events based on TrustArc consent:

Analytics destinations - Only send data when analytics consent is granted
Marketing destinations - Route to advertising platforms only with marketing consent
Functional destinations - Enable enhanced features with functional consent
Necessary destinations - Always route essential operational data

Conditional Data Processing

Beyond simple routing, the mapping layer can:

Transform data - Modify event properties based on consent level
Filter sensitive data - Remove PII/PHI when consent is limited
Aggregate data - Combine events differently based on consent
Delay processing - Hold events until appropriate consent is granted

Conclusion

Integrating TrustArc with Ours Privacy enables:

Full Regulatory Compliance: Support for GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, and healthcare regulations
Granular Consent Control: Category-based and vendor-specific consent management
Complete Audit Trail: Visibility into every consent decision and change
Flexible Integration: Works with any TrustArc configuration or consent strategy

The Ours Privacy platform respects these consent properties throughout your data pipeline, ensuring compliance while maintaining data integrity and user privacy.

For additional support or questions about TrustArc integration, contact our support team at [email protected].