Amazon Consent Signal: A New Era for Privacy-Driven Advertising in 2026

Amazon Consent Signal (ACS) is a proprietary framework designed specifically for Amazon Ads, allowing direct communication of user consent and regional compliance. Unlike IAB TCF, which is industry-wide, ACS integrates seamlessly into Amazon’s advertising ecosystem, supports granular consent parameters like ad storage, user data, and country codes, and ensures compliance across multiple Amazon platforms such as Sponsored Products, DSP, and AMC.

ACS allows advertisers to include ISO country codes along with consent parameters, clearly indicating user permissions per region. This ensures data processing aligns with GDPR, UK privacy laws, and EEA regulations. By mapping consent to specific countries, businesses can manage cross-border campaigns accurately, avoid legal risks, and maintain privacy-first advertising practices without disrupting campaign targeting or measurement workflows.

Technically, advertisers could send ACS data manually, but a CMP automates the capture, translation, and transmission of consent signals. Without a CMP, maintaining accurate records of user consent, handling country-specific permissions, and ensuring compliance across all Amazon advertising platforms becomes complex, error-prone, and difficult to audit, increasing the risk of regulatory violations.

ACS uses GRANTED or DENIED for amzn_user_data and amzn_ad_storage, indicating whether data can be processed or stored for advertising purposes. When amzn_ad_storage is irrelevant, advertisers can set its value to NULL or exclude it entirely. This flexibility ensures signals are accurate, avoids unnecessary data collection, and aligns with user privacy preferences per region.

ACS ensures that only consented data is processed, meaning analytics, measurement, and personalisation workflows receive filtered datasets. This enhances data accuracy, improves attribution models, and prevents unauthorised data use. Country-specific consent parameters allow advertisers to analyse performance per region, ensuring insights are compliant, reliable, and actionable for privacy-conscious campaign optimisation.

Yes, when processing personal data of users in the UK and EEA, ACS or a compliant consent framework is required. It ensures that legally valid data transfers and user permissions are respected across Amazon Ads platforms. Non-compliance can result in regulatory penalties, while proper implementation allows advertisers to maintain privacy-first practices and continue campaign operations without disruption.