SIVT

Sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) is invalid ad traffic that needs advanced analytics, corroboration from several sources or human review to detect, such as hijacked devices, spoofed apps and domains, and faked measurement events.

The MRC's June 2020 addendum gives the authoritative list (MRC, IVT Detection and Filtration Standards Addendum, update, June 2020). It covers automated browsing from dedicated machines or from infected consumer devices, and incentivised human activity such as organised click farms. It also covers forced clicks and clickjacking, and falsified events, including impressions, viewability, location, consent strings and server-side ad insertion. Domain laundering and app ID spoofing are on the list, along with hidden or stacked ads, invalid proxy traffic, adware that injects ads, and cookie stuffing.

The MRC expects some SIVT patterns to become routine over time. When lists and objective criteria exist, those patterns can move into GIVT. Buyers should ask vendors to report GIVT and SIVT separately and say which SIVT checks run before the bid and which only afterwards.

Example: A CTV fraud operation fakes stitched ad impressions from a server, routes them through residential proxies and labels them with the bundle IDs of real streaming apps. Each request looks normal. Only cross-checks of app traffic patterns, IP behaviour and app-ads.txt authorisations reveal it.

Related terms: GIVT, IVT, SSAI, bundle ID, app-ads.txt, ads.cert.

Authoritative source: Media Rating Council, "Invalid Traffic Detection and Filtration Standards Addendum", update (final, June 2020), section 1.1.2.

Read the full guide: Ad fraud detection tools and companies compared.