Gold Standard 2.1 open for public comment

Having first launched in 2017, IAB UK’s Gold Standard aims to reduce ad fraud, uphold brand safety, improve the user experience and compliance with GDPR e-privacy law by pulling together existing industry initiatives. For more information about the Gold Standard, how it works and who can get certified, take a look at our FAQs. 

We are in the process of evolving the Gold Standard again and have published Gold Standard 2.1 specifications for industry consultation. These changes are focused on strengthening end-to-end transparency within the digital advertising supply chain. The changes will be open for public comment until 30 July 2022. 

Proposed changes include:

• For the Gold Standard to cover companies that specialise in emerging digital media offerings like audio, CTV and in-game advertising. At the moment the Gold Standard is focused on display and video advertising
• Changing what was previously known as ‘ad fraud’ criteria in previous versions of the Gold Standard to ‘security and fraud’
• Requirements within security and fraud updated to include:
  • Ads.txt updated to require companies to adhere to the latest version of ads.txt 1.1, which includes ‘owner domain’ or ‘manager domain’, increasing transparency and strengthening ads.txt
  • Introducing a requirement for Buyers.json and DemandChain Object compliance, both of which are new to the Gold Standard. These initiatives will help address the challenge of scam ads and help bring better end-to-end transparency to programmatic transactions
  • Introducing the requirement for companies to adopt Open Measurement SDK (OMSDK), which will help facilitate third-party viewability and verification measurement for ads served to web video and app environment

Download the consultation document below and please submit any responses to [email protected] by 30 July 2022.