What does Dr Fou say about Certifications or Accreditations?

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Dr. Augustine Fou, a cybersecurity and ad fraud researcher, argues that certifications and accreditations such as the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) and Media Rating Council (MRC) are not effective in reducing digital ad fraud. In his article on Forbes, he explains that "most marketers assume that certifications and accreditations help reduce fraud. They don’t."1 He further explains that TAG certifications are useless because they are self-declared or self-attested. "That's like bad guys holding up their right hand and swearing they won't do fraud." Right after they receive TAG certification, they go right back to the fraud. Some gullible advertisers believe that buying from TAG certified vendors means these companies have at least declared that they will do various ad fraud related checks before selling the ad inventory to you.1?

According to Dr. Fou, the MRC accreditation is also not effective in reducing digital ad fraud either. He explains "The MRC does not have any tech, or data, or answer key to know if fraud was detected correctly or completely."2?This means MRC grants accreditations to vendors that detect 5 things or 500 things. Both vendors are "MRC accredited" but show entirely different fraud numbers on the same campaign. Which vendor is right? The MRC certainly doesn't know because they have no tech, no data, and no answer key.

Earlier this month, the spotlight was shone on the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) Certification Against Fraud initiative, after a report found that using certified channels for digital advertising reduced the level of fraud to less than 1% (compared to an industry standard of almost 9%). However, according to Campaign Asia, TAG certification isn't enough in the fight against ad fraud, because the low numbers come from the legacy fraud verification vendors they certified, not independently obtained.?

Certifications and accreditations DON’T mean ad fraud is measured correctly or even that fraud is low. Bad guys are also known to be on their best behavior while going through the certification process and then start the fraud later. It’s well documented there are fraudulent and malicious apps in Google Play.1

In conclusion, while certifications and accreditations such as TAG and MRC can be helpful in other ways such as buying from TAG certified vendors means these companies have at least declared that they will do various ad fraud related checks before selling the ad inventory to you,1 they are not effective in reducing digital ad fraud.2

(1) Do Certifications And Accreditations Help Reduce Ad Fraud? - Forbes. https://bing.com/search?q=why+certifications+and+accreditations+are+not+effective+in+reducing+digital+ad+fraud.

(2) Do Certifications And Accreditations Help Reduce Ad Fraud? - Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/augustinefou/2020/06/15/do-certifications-and-accreditations-help-reduce-ad-fraud/.

(3) Why TAG certification isn’t enough in the fight against ad fraud. https://www.campaignasia.com/article/why-tag-certification-isnt-enough-in-the-fight-against-ad-fraud/449509.

(4) Do Certifications And Accreditations Help Reduce Ad Fraud? Nope. - LinkedIn. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/do-certifications-accreditations-help-reduce-ad-fraud.

(5) TAG, you're s*!t: Internet advertising industry bods admit self-policing approach is a sham - https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/30/tag_ad_fraud/