Advertisers Gain New Weapon to Fight Piracy

Marketers often find their ads placed on websites that promote counterfeit goods or pirated content without their consent. But now, with the introduction of the Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy from the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), there is more industry support to deal with the damages this may cause brands.

TAG – an industry organization formed by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), to attack ad-supported piracy, fraud, malware, and other deficiencies – created its new program in order to protect industry participants from ad piracy.

Online and mobile advertising companies can voluntarily participate in the initiative by using validated tools and services to identify and prevent the risks of delivering ads on websites and other properties that contain infringing activities such as copyright piracy.

In the program, TAG will certify certain advertising technology companies as Digital Advertising Assurance Providers (DAAP). Candidates will have to prove that they have the ability to identify “Ad Risk Entities” (AREs) and prevent ads from appearing on AREs. To do this, TAG will work with a small number of independent third-party validators, including Ernst & Young and Stroz Friedberg.

TAG has already started accepting applications to qualify as DAAP providers. It will announce the first batch of validated tech vendors in the coming months.