The following Marketplace Policy applies to all supply and demand partners working with Sharethrough.
Last Updated: April 29, 2024.
Sharethrough Inc. (“Sharethrough” or “we” or “us” or “our”) is strongly committed to the safety of our Advertising Platform and generating confidence amongst our partners and stakeholders to ensure a clean exchange.
This Marketplace Quality Policy (“Policy”) identifies and codifies initiatives Sharethrough undertakes to protect the Sharethrough Advertising Platform, and to also establish trust and accountability among our partners and the industry. This Policy outlines how we do so in each of the following areas: (a) malware, (b) misinformation, (c) fraud, and (d) brand safety; (collectively, the “Categories”); all of which are correlated to ensuring our publishers, users, and creatives are authenticated. We also discuss below the steps Sharethrough performs in the event an ad has not met our safety guidelines.
Sharethrough Inc. is a supply-side platform (“SSP”) and advertising exchange. Sharethrough’s technology enables the company to conduct auctions for advertising space on the websites, mobile applications, and over-the-top (“OTT”) devices (e.g., SmartTVs) of our partners. Such partners are collectively referred to as “Publishers”. To perform our services, Sharethrough enters into contractual relationships with Publishers to use the Sharethrough advertising platform (the “Advertising Platform”) to run auctions for advertisements based on the personal interests of the visitors of a Publisher’s digital properties (“Partner Sites”).
Through the Advertising Platform, Sharethrough connects Partner Sites to buyers of advertising space that wish to bid on publisher ad space inventory. Buyers include advertisers and intermediary demand-side partners (collectively, “Buyers”). Buyers work with Sharethrough based on contractual relationships to deliver advertisements (“Ads”) based on user personal interests and reach their target audiences.
We discuss below the steps Sharethrough undertakes to protect the exchange of information across the Advertising Platform in each of the Categories in the body of this Policy.
For background, malware is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, deprive access to information, or which unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy.
Sharethrough takes its responsibility to users seriously and endeavours to provide the maximum level of protection against malware for users that may receive Ads delivered by the Advertising Platform.
Sharethrough uses a third-party expert in malware protection, Confiant, to assist in the prevention of malware being delivered to users. Adsfrom Buyers are channeled through Confiant, which detects and actively blocks bad Ads in real time, protecting Publishers and users from forceful redirects, questionable landing pages, phishing scams, and browser fingerprinting. Sharethrough’s integration with Confiant leverages their Creative malware detection technology, which we utilize to block any malicious Creative from delivering to Publishers. Essentially, Confiant acts as a guard-dog for any malicious Ad that enters the Advertising Platform.
As Sharethrough deeply cares about maintaining a clean exchange, we thrive to reduce the amount of Invalid Traffic (“IVT”) on our Advertising Platform. IVT is traffic made by bots or other fraudulent users. It can include accidental clicks caused by intrusive ad implementations, fraudulent clicking by competing advertisers, and can cost Buyers substantial losses from the false delivery of Ads to non-human audiences. Therefore, we work with HUMAN, a TAG accredited IVT vendor, to perform the detection and filtering of invalid impressions. The IVT is detected both pre-bid and post-bid.
Broadly speaking, Sharethrough will send all bid requests from Publishers to Human that uses proprietary technology to respond to us with a flag indicating whether the impression should be treated as IVT. If the request is flagged as IVT, then it is abandoned, and no requests are passed to Buyers. This protects Buyers from bidding on IVT, ensuring that brands are able to reach their target audiences successfully and effectively.
Misinformation is false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead. Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to mislead—intentionally making the misstating facts and fake news is purposefully crafted, sensational, emotionally charged, misleading or totally fabricated information that mimics the form of mainstream news.
Sharethrough has no tolerance for false or inaccurate information, particularly if this type of content is deliberately intended to deceive. To prevent Ads from appearing next to risky content and to increase the quality of ad placements, our partner of choice is AdVerif.ai. AdVerif.ai is an artificial intelligence company providing ad verification solutions for advertisers, publishers and ad networks. AdVerif.ai’s technology accurately moderates content, ensuring transparent pre-bid targeting and post-bid measurement across platforms, protecting brands and consumers from harmful or inappropriate content.
Brand reputation takes time to build. That hard-earned reputation is compromised when a brand’s ad runs next to content inconsistent with the brand’s image or mission. Brand protection reduces the risk of a tarnished reputation by stopping ad placement next to content that doesn’t align with the brand.
Sharethrough takes brand safety seriously and makes it its mission to give brands the reassurance that their Ads will not be delivered to pages containing undesirable or inappropriate content. To ensure brand safety measures Sharethrough has partnered with a third-party provider of cyber threat intelligence and web content classification data services; Zvelo. Zvelo helps Sharethrough manage inventory to ensure placement appropriately aligns with a brand’s image and target audience.
Additionally, Sharethrough works with White Bullet, a TAG accredited data solutions organization that has developed software (known as “IPIP™”) that provides risk data about copyright infringing domains and apps and blocks the advertising that funds them.
For any non-compliance of this Policy flagged by our partners, we contact the relevant non-compliant party to discuss remediation steps. If remediation is not successful, Sharethrough takes action against any non-compliant party with measures that could result in, but are not limited to, suspension of the non-compliant party’s account until such a time that Sharethrough is satisfied that there are no longer any violations to this Policy, and up to the termination of said account.
In addition to the above, Sharethrough has additional policies to help us continue providing a safe Advertising Platform for all. To learn more about the guidelines that our Demand and Supply partners must adhere to, check out our Supply and Demand policies that are available on our website.
The steps that Sharethrough takes to protect the Sharethrough Advertising Platform from malware, misinformation and fraud are varied, intentional, and always focused on preserving the reputation of our partner’s brands. We pride ourselves in being a trust-worthy ally in the AdTech industry and only collaborate with top-tier third-party providers to ensure our Advertising Platform is clean and free from Ads that have not met our safety standards. Sharethrough is determined to act responsibly in the event of a violation of this Policy and will not hesitate to take the necessary means to ensure a non-compliant party becomes compliant, for the security and reputation of all involved.
If you have any questions, or concerns regarding this Policy, please contact the Clean Exchange Team at inventoryquality@sharethrough.com.
This Policy may be updated by Sharethrough at any time without notice.
