The IAB Tech Lab has introduced a tool to help eliminate counterfeit and unauthorized inventory by cutting illegitimate sellers out of the supply chain.
Called ads.txt, the solution enables publishers to declare publicly which sellers are authorized to sell their inventory in a file posted to their domains. Like a robot.txt file, ads.txt ensures trust because the file must be posted to the site by the publisher. Publishers can also update the text file easily with data available in the OpenRTB protocol.
Programmatic buyers can then scan ads.txt files to compile lists of authorized sellers for each publisher in order to screen out untrustworthy impressions and verify the authenticity of impressions being sold. Ads.txt was developed by the IAB OpenRTB Working Group, and in addition to publishers, it supports ad networks, exchanges and content syndication partnerships in which multiple authorized sellers represent the same inventory.
To learn more about this initiative, read the full article on MarTech Today.
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