Google claimed it’s ratcheting up
the fight against fraud in online advertising,
disclosing Friday that it has bought Spider.io, a London company specializing
in ad fraud detection technology.
Google has been investing in ad
fraud prevention for years, said Neal Mohan, Google’s Display Advertising VP in
a blog post on Friday. The company last year turned down millions of
applications from sites looking to join its network because of suspected fraudulent
activity, he said.
Now, Google will immediately
include Spider.io’s fraud detection technology in its video and display ads
products to complement existing efforts, said Mohan.
Spider.io helps preventing
display advertisers from being defrauded by networks of hijacked PCs, tablets
and phones that generate billions of fake ad views, according to its website.
Currently there are two types of
display advertising fraud being committed using hijacked Internet-enabled
devices, according to Spider.io.
The first involves the attacker
running fully automated browsers on the hijacked devices without the knowledge
of the device owners. Those browsers visit ad-laden websites of the attacker’s
choosing and simulate mouse movements and ad clicks, Spider.io said.
The second type involves
hijacking the browsing sessions of the device owners. That typically takes one
of four forms, Spider.io said. The device owner’s clicks could for instance be
redirected to websites of the attacker’s choosing, and the device owner may
also be shown unexpected pop-up windows. Web pages may also be hidden in
pop-under windows under the owners’ active browser windows, and ads could be
illegitimately injected into webpages ordinarily visited by the device owners.
The company’s technology prevents
hijacked PCs, tablets and phones from being used to defraud online advertisers
by identifying the type of automated agent responsible for each individual ad
request in real time, according to its website.
Google said it hopes its
anti-fraud efforts will eventually improve the metrics that advertisers and
publishers use to determine the value of digital media and give all parties a
clearer picture of what campaigns and media are truly delivering strong
results.
Details of the deal were not
disclosed in the blog post. Google did not immediately reply to a request for
comment.
