the due diligence desk

Before you buy an ID graph: the identity questions

A peer-reviewed study found 17 of 18 major ID vendors gave persistent identities to a self-declared bot that has been on the IAB Spiders and Bots list since 2013. No outside body audits or accredits identity providers, and ownership of the largest graphs is moving to holding companies. Coverage and match rates are what vendors sell, so a buyer has to ask what sits behind them.

1. How do you screen out crawlers on the IAB Spiders and Bots list before issuing an ID, and can we see the logs?

   17 of 18 major ID vendors gave identities to the HTTP Archive crawler, which has been on the IAB list since 2013.

   Prompted by ADOTAT: LiveIntent Says Its Graph Is "Authenticated Daily." It Gave a Bot an ID.
2. How often does your system return a bot flag or no ID at all, and can you show those counts for our traffic?

   Only Flashtalking flagged the crawler, answering "Bot" 440,504 times.

   Prompted by ADOTAT: LiveIntent Says Its Graph Is "Authenticated Daily." It Gave a Bot an ID.
3. When you say your graph is authenticated, what event authenticates an ID, how often, and what share of IDs have one?

   LiveIntent says its graph is authenticated daily through newsletter engagement, yet 85 percent of its persistent IDs were shared by the crawls of a bot that never read a newsletter.

   Prompted by ADOTAT: LiveIntent Says Its Graph Is "Authenticated Daily." It Gave a Bot an ID.
4. What is the longest a single ID has persisted across sites, and do you limit persistence for non-human traffic?

   One Audigent ID followed the bot across 52,046 crawls on 29,770 websites.

   Prompted by ADOTAT: LiveIntent Says Its Graph Is "Authenticated Daily." It Gave a Bot an ID.
5. Do you send the same ID to every exchange for the same page view, and what is your mismatch rate?

   Providers sent different IDs to competing exchanges on 18 percent of page views, and ID5 did it on 32 percent.

   Prompted by ADOTAT: LiveIntent Says Its Graph Is "Authenticated Daily." It Gave a Bot an ID.
6. Which independent body audits your graph, and can we read the most recent report?

   The MRC does not audit or accredit any identity provider.

   Prompted by ADOTAT: LiveIntent Says Its Graph Is "Authenticated Daily." It Gave a Bot an ID.
7. Who owns you, and what written terms keep your data equally available to buyers who compete with your parent?

   Publicis won FTC clearance for its $2.2 billion LiveRamp purchase on a promise of neutrality, with five years of nondiscriminatory access and an audit every six months.

   Prompted by ADOTAT: Wire & File: Publicis Bought LiveRamp's Neutrality. Apple Called It Tracking. The Trade Desk Charged the Toll.
8. How does your ID work in Safari today, and what is your plan if Apple treats your method as tracking?

   Apple published its case that identity resolution, close to what LiveRamp sells, is tracking it can block in Safari.

   Prompted by ADOTAT: Wire & File: Publicis Bought LiveRamp's Neutrality. Apple Called It Tracking. The Trade Desk Charged the Toll.

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