ads.cert: signing the bid request

Myth. Ads.txt proves a bid request is genuine.

It doesn’t. Ads.cert is the IAB standard for cryptographically signing ad traffic.

Here’s the gap. Ads.txt says who may sell news.example. But a middleman can edit a bid request in transit, and nothing shows it. Version one, in twenty eighteen, needed OpenRTB three, and the industry stayed on two. Version two changed approach. Each company publishes a public key in its DNS, called a call sign. The SSP signs each request. The DSP checks the key. Did this come from that company? Was anything altered? Honest status. Tech Lab calls it ready, its reference code says proof of concept, and adoption is hard to find.

Your protection today is ads.txt, sellers.json and schain. Keep all three clean.

Next: OM SDK, measuring viewability in apps.