This week's review of ad fraud and quality in the digital advertising space.
Pixalate's top five stories from 2020 include multiple ad fraud discoveries spanning Connected TV/OTT and mobile in-app advertising as well as breakthroughs for the OTT/CTV ad ecosystem.
"The state of mobile app security is poor," wrote Avast in a blog post examining how apps "represent a huge and growing attack vector" — using Pixalate's recent Matryoshka ad fraud discovery as an example.
"Mobile apps are being pushed out of development more rapidly than ever, with best security practices often a fleeting afterthought," wrote Avast.
Pixalate's Mobile Ad Supply Chain: App Safety & Consumer Data Privacy Report (Q3 2020) takes a specific look at apps for kids (aged 12 and under). This blog examines the percentage of apps across the Google and Apple app stores that count kids aged 12 and under as part of their target audience — but do not appear to have a privacy policy.
In this eMarketer podcast, Nicole Perrin, eMarketer principal analyst, and Eric Haggstrom, forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence, "discuss what they're paying attention to in 2021" — including digital ad measurement and the Connected TV ecosystem.
Connected TV/OTT ad fraud schemes "could become more common as advertisers turn to cheaper, less trustworthy buying options amid skyrocketing demand for CTV inventory," wrote Business Insider. "Still, marketers likely won't shy away from the channel—in fact, it will be a bright spot in 2021," Business Insider added.
