SIVT fraud detection: What is cookie stuffing, recycling, or harvesting?

Pixalate is an MRC-accredited company for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic ("SIVT") desktop and mobile web impressions.

According to the Media Rating Council’s (MRC) standards for Invalid Traffic Detection and Filtration Guidelines, there are two types of invalid traffic:

• GIVT (General Invalid Traffic)
• SIVT (Sophisticated Invalid Traffic)

“Cookie stuffing, recycling, or harvesting” is one example of SIVT.

What is “cookie stuffing, recycling, or harvesting” in the MRC definition of SIVT?

An example of this type of SIVT includes the manipulation of user cookies to disguise automated browsers behind legitimate user cookies.

The MRC adds, “inserting, deleting, or misattributing cookies thereby manipulating or falsifying prior activity of users.”

MRC-accredited ad fraud detection and prevention companies must be able to identify cookie stuffing, recycling, or harvesting.

What are some other examples of SIVT?

Cookie stuffing, recycling, or harvesting is just one example of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) as defined by the MRC. To learn about some of the other examples of SIVT, click on any of the examples below:

•      Bots and spiders or other crawlers masquerading as legitimate users
•      Hijacked devices, user sessions, ad tags, and ad creative
•      Hidden/stacked/covered or otherwise intentionally obfuscated ad serving
•      Invalid proxy traffic
•      Adware and malware
•      Incentivized manipulation of measurements
•      Falsified viewable impression decisions
  
•      Falsely represented sites
•      Manipulation or falsification of location data
•      Differentiating human and IVT traffic when originating from the same or similar source