The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has proposed a set of guidelines for advertising within over-the-top (OTT) environments.

“The Guidelines for Identifier for Advertising (IFA) on OTT platforms” proposes three requirements for ad requests sent by devices and apps. These guidelines are centered around giving privacy choices to the consumer.

The first guideline proposal is an identifier for advertising (IFA). IAB says that an IFA must be a unique value that is completely disconnected from a hardware ID, MAC address, IMEI, or IP address. This identifier would be mandatory for ad requests unless the user has opted in to limit ad tracking (see below). Users must be able to reset the IFA and a new, unrelated IFA must be generated whenever a reset occurs.

Under the next guideline, an associated IFA type should identify the source of the IFA, whether device-generated, publisher-provided, or temporary.

Finally, IAB recommends offering limit ad tracking (LAT) as an opt-out mechanism to respect the user’s privacy choices.

Under these proposed OTT advertising guidelines, consumer electronics manufacturers and app stores must provide an API or SDK for app publishers to read the IFA. Having a single area within a platform for users to manage advertising identifiers is also recommended. IAB recommends that access to the privacy policy and terms of use should be located near the IFA reset and LAT settings for convenience.

“The traditional semi-persistent cookie we are accustomed to using as an identifier on browsers isn’t at play across OTT systems, so we need to deploy other types of identifiers to ensure that ad experiences are optimal for consumers,” Dennis Buchheim, senior vice president and general manager of IAB Tech Lab wrote in a statement. “These guidelines will direct stakeholders down the path of best practices to allow OTT to grow and evolve as a significant advertising platform.”

“The Guidelines for Identifier for Advertising on OTT platforms” are open for a 30-day public comment period from April 3 to May 3. Questions and comments regarding these guidelines can be sent to video@iabtechlab.com.