Charles River Associates — AdTech forensics
Forensic AdTech analysis, remediation, and testimony.
Deep expertise in pixels, SDKs, cookies, tag managers, consent frameworks, and browser privacy mechanisms — enabled by proprietary tools that support the automated collection and analysis of network traffic, client-side code, and historical site configurations.
- Network traffic
- Tag management
- Source code
- Consent platforms
Your AdTech stack
A growth catalyst
Measurement, attribution, and audience activation drive the revenue engine of the modern enterprise.
The same stack
A risk multiplier
Every tag, pixel, and vendor is also a data flow that regulators, plaintiffs, and courts now examine in detail.
01 — Platform
Automation to deliver across all types of ecosystems.
Whether engaged for a single point-in-time assessment, a historical privileged investigation, or ongoing monitoring, we support engagements from single-domain reviews to analysis across a thousand-plus digital properties.
01
Consent & tag manager monitoring
Real-time monitoring of CMP and tag manager functionality to ensure proper signal propagation.
02
Tracking technology alerts
Automated alerting for PII exposure and concerning behaviors across your AdTech stack.
03
Real-time technology inventory
Comprehensive inventory validated across client-side execution, source code, and tag management platforms.
04
Data flow mapping
Visual mapping of upstream and downstream data flows across your AdTech ecosystem.
05
Historical container review
Review historical container configurations to track behavior evolution over time.
06
Tag management platform monitoring
Continuous monitoring of container configurations to detect unauthorized changes.
02 — Approach
Your CMP is not a governance tool. It is a signaling tool — with multiple points of failure.
A consent management platform does not directly control whether an online tracking technology fires.
Tag managers, customer data platforms, authentication systems, AdTech vendors, and your own source code must each retrieve the signal and act on it — on the front end and the back end. We trace the signal through all of them and document exactly where it breaks.
Fig. 1 — CMP signal propagation
03 — Coverage
Monitor every system, signal, and event.
Runtime opt-out
Verify opt-out-of-sale selections are honored at runtime across network traffic and tag management systems.
GPC signals
Track browser-level Global Privacy Control signals and their propagation through consent platforms.
Auditable receipts
Analyze consent receipts and documentation across consent management platforms and storage systems.
Standardized strings
Monitor IAB GPP and TCF consent strings across network traffic and programmatic ecosystems.
Compliant notices
Validate notice rendering and preference manager functionality across devices and source code.
Auto-blocking behavior
Observe domain blocking and tracker suppression across network traffic and tag configurations.
Persistence
Confirm consent status persists across browser storage, cookies, and cross-device synchronization.
CIPA suppression
Monitor time-based suppression behavior across network traffic and tag management systems.
Forensic reporting
Synthesize findings from every source into evidence-grade reports for investigations and litigation.
04 — Engagement
How we work.
01
Forensic collection
We capture browser-level network traffic, tag management configuration, source code, and CMP behavior to reconstruct the complete picture — not a sample of it.
02
Data-flow validation
We validate that signals from the CMP are correctly received and acted upon by every downstream system and vendor, and document where they are not.
03
Ongoing Monitoring & Support
Continuous observation and on-call subject-matter experts translate findings for business, legal, and regulatory audiences.
04
Expert Testimony
Subject-matter experts carry findings through to expert testimony when legal or regulatory proceedings require it.