What a consent integration does
Consent integrations connect an external consent management platform - or Tealium's own consent tooling - into iQ's decision flow, so tag and extension execution is gated by the visitor's actual, current consent state rather than firing on page load regardless.
When you need to build this deliberately
Any implementation with a CMP already live that operates independently of iQ today. The gap we find most often in audits: the banner displays correctly and records a consent choice somewhere, but the tags on the page were never actually wired to read that choice.
How to implement it properly
Map the CMP's consent categories to iQ load rules and extensions explicitly - a category ID mismatch here is silent and common. Decide the default state before any consent choice is captured; deny-by-default is the more defensible position in most jurisdictions, and should be a stated decision, not an accident of configuration. Wire the decision flow so a consent change re-evaluates tags already loaded on the page, not only tags that load afterward - a visitor who revokes consent mid-session should see that decision actually take effect. Test both the accept and reject paths, not just one.
How to verify it worked
With consent denied, capture actual network traffic and confirm nothing analytics-adjacent leaves the browser - not just that the tag is invisible in the iQ UI, which only proves configuration, not runtime behavior. Then accept consent in the same session and confirm the same tags now fire. Category mappings and available decision-flow options are configuration and version dependent - verify current behavior against both your CMP's and Tealium's documentation.
The verification most audits skip: testing the reject path at all. A consent flow that has only ever been tested by clicking "accept" has not actually been tested.