First,
let me introduce myself by way of my recent background – I left
Symantec and joined Click Forensics because I wanted to help fight the
industry’s biggest problem, click fraud, which threatens the economic
foundations of the internet economy. At Symantec, I was responsible for
the development of all heuristic technologies used to combat online
criminal activities including Phishing, Crimeware and Online Identity
Theft.
I was very surprised to see the
posting on Shuman Ghosemajumder’s blogsite referring to Click
Forensics. The posting is so filled with inaccuracies that I can only
assume it represents an individual’s view and not that of Google’s
executive management. While we view the search providers as partners, I
wanted to respond to the inaccuracies in the blog. Shuman writes:
“The analysis that we see from
third-party auditing firms (including ClickForensics) seems to
essentially rely on just one factor, which we call IP frequency. IP
frequency is the number of times an IP address clicks within a certain
time window. If it clicks too many times, it could be click fraud.”
Google knows quite well that our
heuristics are broad and deep and involve large numbers of attributes,
not a single attribute like “IP frequency”. There are actually multiple
classes of heuristics with each class consisting of many separate
attributes:
- Technical heuristics stem from
information about the visitor’s IP, browser and system
configuration. This information can tell us many things. For example,
is the visitor coming from a location in Eastern Europe even though the
ad is targeting US customers – or – is the visitor a Bot, an automated
program designed to commit click fraud.
- Behavioral
heuristics include information about the visitor’s path – the series of
clicks that follow the initial click on the ad. The amount of time
visitors spend on a site, the specific path they take on the site, and
eventually whether or not they make a purchase – all of these behaviors
are input to our scoring algorithm.
- Economic heuristics
are some of our most confidential, but what we can say is that
indications of fraud are related to the economic rewards of clicks –
fraudsters are after money and that’s information we can use to our
advantage.
- Community heuristics include information we
can gather from across search providers and channels – just as
criminals can be identified by patterns even if they rob in different
locations.
The blog entry is apparently intended
to be divisive by being dismissive of third party validation
services. Click Forensics takes the opposite approach. We view the
search providers as partners that need our help. That’s why we use the
“Google Click ID” to eliminate page refresh and reloads from our
reports. We use this measure in good faith trusting that Google will
accurately transmit a unique ID for each and every click they charge
for.
One reality that advertisers
understand all too well is that it is impossible for Google to police
itself, because there is an inherent conflict of interest (this is why
companies like Nielsen ad Arbitron exist in traditional media). Even if
it weren’t for the direct conflict of interest, there are technical
hurdles that Google can’t overcome, for example:
Google lacks the conversion
data that third-party validation services such as Click Forensics
have. Conversion data is extremely useful for identifying valid clicks
and is critical to any complete approach.
- Google does not have access to
clicks occurring across different search providers. Click Forensics can
see the same fraudsters clicking on ads on Google, Yahoo, MSN and other
search providers. Access to this data is critical in identifying
unwanted activity.
- Last year, Dr. Alex Tuzhilin from NYU spent time at Click Forensics reviewing our approach. He concluded that, “The search providers simply don't have enough data to have the most accurate approach.”
We are building a world-renowned
group of heuristic detection experts who will help provide accurate
independent analysis to online advertisers so they can have true
insight into their exposure. We continue to be advocates for our
customers, the online advertisers, and to work as partners with the
search providers to increase the level of confidence advertisers have
in their services. Let’s work together to help make online advertising
better and more effective.
Peter Norwood
Chief Operating Officer
Click Forensics