IVT Taxonomy and Examples

The below charts explain the different types of invalid traffic with corresponding examples. These examples are meant to be illustrative to help represent the differences between categories and only represent a subset of possible invalid behaviors & tactics.

GIVT

Category	Definition	Examples

Category	Definition	Examples
Data Center	Ad traffic originating from servers in data centers whose IPs are linked to invalid activity (typically non-human traffic). These are usually known data center IPs that are likely included in an industry list, such as the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) Data Center IP List.	TAG data center IP list
Known Crawler	A program or automated script that requests content and declares itself as non-human through a variety of identification mechanisms. These crawlers are usually included in the IAB International Spiders and Bots List.	IAB spiders & bots blacklist
Irregular Pattern	Ad traffic that includes one or more attributes (e.g. user cookie) associated with known irregular patterns, such as auto-refresh traffic or duplicate clicks.	False Representation

SIVT

Category	Definitions	Examples

Category	Definitions	Examples
Automated Browsing	A program or automated script that requests web content (including digital ads) without user involvement and without declaring itself as a crawler, such as and primarily referring to botnets.	Botnets
False Representation	An ad request for inventory that is different from the actual inventory being supplied, including ad requests where the actual ad is rendered to a different website or application, device, or other target (such as geography).	Spoofed measurement, domain spoofing, emulators masquerading
Misleading User Interface	A web page, application, or other visual element modified to falsely include one or more ads. This includes rendering ads that are not visible to the user or tricking users to click on an ad.	Stacked ads, ads hiding
Manipulated Behavior	A browser, application, or other program that triggers an ad interaction without a user’s consent, such as an unintended click, an unexpected conversion, or false attribution for installation of a mobile application.	Pop-unders, aggressive popups, forced new window
Incentivized Behavior	The use of an explicit incentive to drive users to interact with one or more ads for the sole purpose of receiving said incentive and without any advertiser knowledge of its presence. Often these incentives are financial in nature.	Undeclared rewarded videos, click farms
Undisclosed Information	Invalid traffic that cannot be classified using any of the other categories in the taxonomy or sensitive invalid traffic that cannot be disclosed.	Machine learning models, sensitive invalid traffic