DoubleVerify

Overview

DoubleVerify (DV) is an independent digital media quality and verification platform. It provides advertisers and publishers with measurement of ad viewability, invalid traffic (IVT) detection, brand safety classification, and contextual targeting data. DoubleVerify operates as infrastructure within the programmatic advertising ecosystem — its scripts run alongside ad tags to evaluate the quality of ad impressions in real time.

What This Script Does

DoubleVerify scripts run in the context of ad delivery, not as standalone tracking tags loaded by site operators. They are typically injected by demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs), or ad servers as part of the ad call chain. The verification script:

Viewability Measurement

• Monitors whether the ad creative is within the user's viewport and how long it remains visible
• Uses IntersectionObserver API and custom geometry calculations to measure the percentage of the ad unit visible on screen
• Reports viewability metrics (in-view rate, average viewable time) to advertisers for campaign optimization and publisher payment auditing
• Collects page scroll position, viewport dimensions, and ad slot geometry at measurement time

Invalid Traffic (IVT) Detection

• Analyzes browser behavioral signals to distinguish human users from bots, crawlers, and fraudulent traffic sources
• Examines: User-Agent string patterns, JavaScript execution environment, mouse movement presence, scroll behavior consistency, browser feature availability, and timing of interactions
• Checks against DoubleVerify's database of known datacenter IP ranges, bot signatures, and fraudulent domain lists
• Reports IVT classifications (General IVT / Sophisticated IVT) to advertisers for billing reconciliation and fraud chargebacks

Brand Safety and Suitability

• Classifies the page content surrounding the ad slot against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) brand safety taxonomy
• Analyzes page URL, page title, visible text content, and contextual signals
• Assigns suitability scores across categories including: Adult Content, Violence, Hate Speech, Illegal Content, and Misinformation
• Reports brand suitability classifications to advertisers for campaign targeting and brand protection

Contextual Targeting (DV Authentic Brand Suitability)

• Provides contextual segment data to advertisers for privacy-safe targeting without cookies
• Analyzes page content and assigns contextual topic categories

Data collected per impression: Page URL, referrer URL, ad slot dimensions and position, User-Agent, IP address (for IVT and fraud detection), viewport metrics, page content signals for brand safety classification, timestamp.

Script loaded from: cdn.doubleverify.com Domains contacted: cdn.doubleverify.com, rtb{N}.doubleverify.com, pub.doubleverify.com, stats.doubleverify.com

No persistent user-identifying cookies are set by DoubleVerify for cross-site behavioral profiling. Data collection is scoped to the impression context.

Consent & Compliance

GDPR/ePrivacy: DoubleVerify processes data in the context of ad delivery. Its viewability and IVT measurement do not require persistent user identifiers — they operate on page-level and session-level signals. Brand safety classification processes page content rather than user behavior. Because DoubleVerify does not set persistent tracking cookies and does not build user profiles for targeting, its consent requirements are substantially lower than those of ad targeting and conversion tracking vendors. However, it processes IP addresses and browser signals, which constitute personal data under GDPR. DoubleVerify's processing is typically covered under the advertising consent granted for the ad impression it accompanies.

CCPA/CPRA: DoubleVerify's impression-level data processing does not constitute selling personal information for advertising targeting purposes — it measures and verifies rather than targets.

IAB TCF: DoubleVerify is registered as an IAB TCF vendor (Vendor ID 202) with declared purposes including Purpose 1 (store/access information) and Special Feature 1 (precise geolocation) in specific contexts.

Consent category: Analytics (ad verification — tied to advertising consent).

Should You Block This Without Consent?

Conditional. DoubleVerify is an ad verification tool that runs as infrastructure within the programmatic advertising stack, not a standalone tracking tag loaded by site operators. It does not independently set persistent tracking cookies or build cross-site behavioral profiles. If you block advertising scripts entirely pending consent, DoubleVerify will be blocked alongside them since it only functions in the presence of ads. If the user consents to advertising, DoubleVerify does not add meaningful incremental privacy risk. Publishers and advertisers do not typically need to manage DoubleVerify as a separate consent item.