SpotX earns independent recertification for TAG Anti-Fraud, Anti-Piracy, Anti-Malware, ICQ Seals via BPA Worldwide
May 30, 2019
SpotX, the global video advertising and monetization platform, has maintained its TAG Platinum Status by being recertified for all four seals awarded by the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) through independent validation by global assurance provider BPA Worldwide. Seals earned by SpotX include the TAG Certified Against Fraud Seal, TAG Certified Against Malware Seal, TAG Certified Against Piracy Seal, and TAG Inventory Quality Guidelines (IQG) Compliance. The independent recertification of all seals further strengthens SpotX’s long-time commitment to brand safety and full transparency.
“SpotX is one of the few companies to achieve TAG Platinum Status and independent validation of all four TAG compliance programs: Inventory Quality, Anti-Fraud, Anti-Malware and AntiPiracy,” said Richard Murphy, BPA’s Executive Vice President of Technology Assurance. “Their commitment to quality and transparency should be recognized and applauded by the industry.”
The TAG Certified Against Piracy Program helps advertisers and ad agencies avoid damage to their brands from unsafe ad placements that facilitate the distribution of pirated content and counterfeit products. By blocking sites that commit piracy, SpotX ensures that no money is paid to these entities. The TAG Certified Against Malware initiative works to eliminate the distribution of malware through the digital advertising supply chain, and the TAG Certified Against Fraud Program combats the negative impact of counterfeit online traffic by providing a suite of anti-fraud tools to aid in compliance. The goal of TAG’s IQG program is to create a common framework and language to ensure both campaign goals are reached and informed decisions can be made in programmatic environments.
SpotX is recognized as a leader in brand safety and was also an early adopter of ads.txt, the IAB Tech Lab’s technical solution for publicly declaring which companies are authorized to sell digital inventory, thereby combating unauthorized and spoofed impressions across the platform. SpotX is also in full support of app-ads.txt which is identical to ads.txt but specifically designed for mobile in-app and over-the-top (OTT) inventory .
“At SpotX, we’re committed to ensuring a brand-safe environment for our advertisers and eliminating any and all bad actors,” said J. Allen Dove, CTO at SpotX and one of the founding members of the IAB’s ads.txt and ads.cert initiatives. “We believe in the importance of implementing multiple processes and technologies to combat fraudulent activity and will continue to keep our ecosystem free of fraud and push to maintain the integrity of the industry as a whole.”
Although there is no silver bullet to eliminate ad fraud, SpotX offers multiple layers of protection by taking a commonsense approach in identifying and eliminating suspicious traffic and bad actors via its in-house Brand Safety Team, licensing with several anti-fraud vendors that both prefilter invalid traffic and monitor impression quality. The company has also made a strategic decision to avoid doing business with any entity that is not seen as adding value to the ecosystem, and has taken a firm stance on not allowing any low-quality OTT apps or OTT resellers on its platform. In fact, only one out of 100 media owners wishing to do business with SpotX are actually approved and integrated.
“The TAG Platinum Status achieved by SpotX marks the highest level of achievement across all four of TAG’s program areas, and it demonstrates the extraordinary commitment of SpotX to ensuring a safe and transparent advertising ecosystem,” said Mike Zaneis, CEO at Trustworthy Accountability Group. “We are delighted to recognize SpotX for its recertification across TAG’s programs and equally pleased it took the extra steps of independent validation through BPA Worldwide, one of TAG’s most important partners in ensuring rigorous compliance across the industry.”