The Media Rating Council, the official arbiter of media ratings in the U.S., has issued new guidelines for digital media vendors and companies as a result of the growing concern over online advertising fraud. These guidelines, which will address the detection and filtering of “invalid traffic” generated by bots and other non-human sources, are discussed in this Media Post article by Erik Sass.
The rules are presented in a document entitled, “Invalid Traffic (IVT) Detection and Filtration Guidelines, Version 1.0.” Among the key points in the guidelines: the requirement for enhanced internal controls covering employee behavior policies, partner qualification processes, analysis of acquired or paid traffic, periodic risk assessments, and the correct procedure for challenging a decision to remove invalid traffic.
These rules apply to all measurement products that involve tagging, beacons, cookies, redirects, and other types of message tracking, and to various types of census tracking.
The Council expects all MRC-accredited organizations to comply with the new guidelines. Although the rules take effect immediately, accredited organizations have a grace period of 180 days to comply with them. All future applicants for accreditation will be evaluated for compliance with these rules.
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