Google ad man Vegard Johnsen says tech big wigs including Facebook and Yahoo! have forged a giant blacklist to block fake web traffic contributing to advertising fraud.
The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) pilot program will nix bot traffic using a blacklist which could cut a significant portion of web traffic; Google’s DoubleClick blacklist alone blocked some 8.9 percent of traffic.
“The newly shared blacklist identifies web robots that are being run in data centers but that avoid detection by the IAB/ABC International Spiders and Bots List,” Johnsen says.
“By pooling our collective efforts and working with industry bodies, we can create strong defenses against those looking to take advantage of our ecosystem.
“We look forward to working with the TAG Anti-fraud working group to turn this pilot program into an industry-wide tool.”
Johnsen says some publishers will do anything to inflate clicks including running tools in data centers that generate fake ad impressions.
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