[crowcroft]

'Ad fraud' and 'bot traffic' tools really don't have any true insight into these walled gardens.

None of them are running their own code on anyone's device to track anything, at best they're processing data given to them from a Meta/TikTok/X etc. API that might have a bit more data other people don't have access to.

Maybe that uncovers some new insight and some egregious cases of fraud occasionally, but ultimately the big platforms are basically just saying 'trust me bro' and getting rubber stamped by these vendors. I don't doubt X is full of bot traffic, but Meta might just be better at fudging their numbers to CHEQ for all we know.