Moloco brand safety policy
Dated: December 28, 2021

Brand safety policy

1. Overview

This Brand Safety Policy describes the governance process Moloco, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively "Moloco") has implemented to ensure brand safety for all customers including taking all reasonable steps to minimize the risk of ad misplacement. It is Moloco’s intention to provide advertisers with the greatest level of brand safety possible using tools and processes. Moloco has implemented both manual processes using inclusion and exclusion block lists and automated processes such as proprietary block lists. Moloco also works with supply-side partners to minimize and block inappropriate advertising inventory. Moloco’s Brand Safety Policy is applicable to both managed and self-service customers.

2. Brand safety principles


The Moloco platform automatically minimizes the risk of ad misplacement across all campaigns. For self-service customers, they can create inclusion or exclusion lists, and/or include and exclude ad exchanges for their campaigns. For managed customers, Moloco will adhere to the brand safety specifications agreed in each insertion order. In addition to basic brand safety checks described above, Moloco may respond to news coverage that could impact a brand by excluding additional publishers using inclusion or exclusion lists. This will be determined on a case by case basis in collaboration with the customer.

3. Moloco Proprietary Lists

3.1. Global block list

Moloco maintains a proprietary global block list of mobile apps that have been flagged as possible candidates for ad fraud. The global block list is updated regularly using automated processes and further validated using human processes.

3.2 Global brand safety list

Moloco also maintains a proprietary global exclusion list of mobile apps that have been flagged as containing inappropriate or suspicious activity. This global exclusion brand safety list is updated on a regular basis using human processes, proprietary technology and insights from third party partners such as ad exchanges and advertisers, to minimize the risk of ads appearing against:

  • Adult content including but not limited to nudity, pornography, or any explicit sexual conduct
  • Sexual assault/child abuse content
  • Graphic violence/death
  • Promotion of drugs or illegal criminal activity
  • Copyright infringement
  • Extremist content/hate speech
  • Terrorism
  • Illegal downloads/online piracy
  • Offensive language/obscenity
  • Spam or harmful sites
  • Arms/weapons
  • Military conflict
  • Tobacco


4. Customer inclusion and exclusion lists

Moloco enables customers to create their own inclusion or exclusion list depending on a campaign’s targeting criteria in order to address brand safety concerns and minimize ad misplacement.

5. Supply side platform management

Moloco regularly engages with supply side platforms in order to optimize supply based on customer requirements, minimize brand safety issues and block unwanted advertising inventory.

6. Managed service

For managed service customers, all programmatic trading is managed by the Moloco Account Management team and inventory is traded 100% programmatically and transparently via open marketplaces and private marketplaces. All campaigns utilize Moloco’s standard global block list as good practice, in addition to any further inclusion or exclusion lists that may be specified in the insertion order.

7. Self-service Moloco has documented the tools and processes available to self-service customers in order to implement and maintain brand safety good practices. These tools and process can be found in the Moloco online documentation and covers the following areas:

  • Block specific ad exchanges
  • Add advertiser inclusion or exclusion block list
  • Block specific specific categories using the IAB Content Taxonomy
  • Provide transparent impression level reporting by publisher and exchange
  • Request to add Moloco proprietary global brand safety list


8. Process and Maintenance

Moloco provides advertisers with programmatic inventory transparency and real-time information. Advertisers can validate where ads are being displayed at any time by logging into the Moloco Cloud platform.

Moloco continually reviews publishers to ensure ads do not appear against content that is not brand safe. At a high level, our domain vetting process for campaign briefs includes the following steps:

Managed service

A. For custom inclusion lists created to meet the requirements of specific campaign briefs, individual bundle IDs and domains are manually vetted by the Moloco Account Management team before being added to any inclusion list. Only bundle IDs and domains with appropriate content and do not fall into any of the blocked categories in the global block list as defined section 3, are allowed onto the list.

B. Moloco monitors fraudulent activity using basic campaign performance metrics. Publishers that are flagged will be removed from campaign lists.

C. The Moloco global block list is updated on a regular basis using human processes, internal algorithms, Moloco’s fraud tool, Doublecheck, and other third party sources. This is implemented at a platform level and automatically applies to all campaigns managed by Moloco.

D. The Moloco global brand safety list is updated every quarter based on publisher information extracted from Apple and Google Play app stores, such as content and age rating of each app. This list is maintained by the Operations and Data Science team at Moloco.

9. Takedown Policy

In the event that a customer deems their ad has been displayed against inappropriate content, Moloco will take action to remove the publisher(s) as soon as notice has been received from the advertiser via email, and/or pause the campaign until the issue has been resolved.

Moloco operates a takedown policy to remove delivery across such content within one business day of written communication.

Moloco will endeavor to fully investigate the ad violation and take any necessary steps to remove the risk of this happening again.

The Moloco Operations and Data Science team will manually audit publishers utilizing brand safety tools and data across supply side platforms. If they are found to be unsuitable they will be excluded.

Moloco Cloud self-service advertisers will be able to log into the platform and add publisher(s) to a blacklist and/or pause the campaign if required. Self-service customers may contact Moloco to investigate the matter further.

Where advertiser has agreed the Moloco Insertion Order or Master Service Agreement: The contractual consequences of not taking down an ad in accordance with the Moloco take down policy to be agreed between Moloco and advertiser on a case by case basis.

10. Anti-Fraud policy

All publishers with suspicious activity above a threshold are removed from campaigns. By working with pre-vetted inventory and/or trusted inventory sellers only, Moloco lowers the risk for ad fraud.

11. Mobile App Piracy

Moloco can filter out piracy using its Pirate Mobile App Tool which is maintained by TAG’s (Trustworthy Accountability Group) Pirate Mobile App list and regular updates from Moloco’s supply-side partners. The Pirate Mobile App Tool helps advertisers, agencies, and mobile ad tech intermediaries identify and filter out infringing mobile apps from their advertising inventory.

12. Supporting app-ads.txt

Moloco supports the app-ads.txt specification, an extension of the original ads.txt standard designed to meet the requirements for applications distributed through mobile app stores, connected television app stores, or other application distribution channels. The specification is a peer-reviewed standard developed with the support of the OpenRTB working group within the IAB Tech Group.

13. Coalition for Better Ads

Moloco is a supporter of the Coalition for Better Ads, an organization setup by the leading international trade associations and companies involved in online media, in order to improve consumers’ experience with online advertising. The Coalition for Better Ads leverages consumer insights and cross-industry expertise to develop and implement new global standards for online advertising that address consumer expectations. The Coalition for Better Ad Standards within Mobile App Advertising can be found here: https://www.betterads.org/standards/

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