MRC Invites Feedback on Invalid Traffic Guidelines

In the US, the Media Rating Council (MRC) has made its 'Invalid Traffic Detection and Filtration Guidelines Addendum' available for public review and commentary for a 30-day period, closing at the end of July.

The guidelines have been developed to modernize industry measurement standards for the filtration and disclosure of invalid traffic (IVT), and once finalized will serve as an addendum to all accreditation procedures. Ultimately, all vendors seeking accreditation or continuation of accreditation for any digital measurement processes will be assessed against the guidance, which categorizes IVT into two categories:

• General Invalid Traffic - defined as traffic that can be identified through routing means of filtration, including bots, crawlers and invalid proxy traffic.
• Sophisticated Invalid Traffic - identified through advanced analytics, and including traffic originating from hijacked devices, malware or misappropriated content.

During the 30-day public comment period, interested parties can download a copy of the draft here: www.mediaratingcouncil.org/GI063015_IVT%20Addendum%20Draft%205.0%20(Public%20Comment).pdf . Revisions made as a result of these comments will be reviewed by the working group of 200+ organizations, prior to the release of the final version of the guidelines.

George Ivie (pictured), MRC's Executive Director and CEO, comments: 'Invalid traffic is posing a serious threat to marketplace confidence in a healthy and vibrant digital advertising ecosystem. We have worked with some of the industry's most knowledgeable experts to strengthen the measurement requirements around how invalid traffic is detected and reported'.

Web site: www.mediaratingcouncil.org .