As browsers tighten their grip on the open web, the IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server framework offers publishers a path to reclaim control, shifting key ad operations server-side to restore transparency, privacy compliance, and revenue potential.
Publishers have been forced into a corner. For years, the open web has been chipped away by a mix of privacy theater, arbitrary platform rules, and some technical workarounds that never quite delivered.
We’re told it’s all for the good of the user. Meanwhile, before we knew it, web browsers became the de facto arbiters of the web, wielding disproportionate power as gatekeepers rather than acting as neutral, standardized conduits to consumer access. This shift has made it increasingly difficult for publishers to get paid for their craft: delivering great content to consumers and connecting audiences with brands.
Browsers have gone from rendering pages to regulating the flow of money on the web. With each update, publishers lose visibility, audience signal, and appeal to advertisers as open web attribution becomes more difficult. The latest moves from much of the browser community, including third-party cookie deprecation and proposals dictating the future of attribution models for the open web, are more signs of a future where publishers have to work even harder to get paid.
We’ve been patient. We’ve sat in the meetings. We’ve read the specs. And I’ll say it plainly: enough is enough. We won’t fix this through a series of functional critiques or waiting for another API to ship. We are through the looking glass. The world has changed, so an entirely new paradigm is required.
This led the Tech Lab to develop the Trusted Server Framework — one example of how publisher-owned infrastructure could help rebalance the ecosystem.
It reflects a broader movement: publishers taking steps to reclaim control of their infrastructure and data strategies in a system that has marginalized them for too long.
Server-Side Infrastructure for the Open Web
As part of this shift, Trusted Server offers a model where ad execution moves off the browser and into publisher-operated server-side environments. That means core functions — auctions, guaranteed campaigns, measurement, identity, and more — can happen under publisher control and within the scope of regional privacy regulation.
Built as open-source software, the framework is designed to run on publisher-controlled infrastructure, whether at the edge or in the cloud, with transparency at its core.
Today, Trusted Server is a prototype. It’s built to support existing workflows, including integrations with Prebid Server and SSP partners, while helping publishers maintain first-party identity, manage ad requests, and gain control over audience relationships with minimal disruption to their current ad tech stack.
Through its open-sourced approach, the framework’s design principles are intended to support use cases like server-side fraud detection, identity and measurement, improved video delivery, and enhanced visibility into what publisher data is being shared and where it’s going.
Legitimate concerns about server-side complexity and shifting opacity to a new layer exist. But publishers already operate in a flawed system. If anyone’s followed the trades over the years, it’s clear that the current client-side architecture also has its challenges. As the Trusted Server is developed, we are focused on the integrity of a server-side solution and seeking industry contributions to ensure that. Gaining direct publisher control over core operations can offer a more transparent alternative where they can actively manage the risks, instead of being subject to them.
The concept behind Trusted Server is not new. The CTV ecosystem has been operating server-side since its inception. Activating this approach for the open web is not a radical leap.
The Trusted Server initiative isn’t about forcing everything server-side — it’s about creating a fallback that gives publishers options as user agents continue to limit access to data and advertising capabilities.
The framework is open to contribution and collaboration. Like any structural shift, its success will depend on broad industry input and alignment around the shared goal of a publisher-first infrastructure.
The open web doesn’t need another workaround. It requires infrastructure built for the people who create and fund the content that drives it — publishers. This is one attempt to move in that direction. It’s not perfect. But it’s a start.