Problem

We see 404s for /ads.txt and it may reduce security and reputational risks to have it present.

Description

Add /ads.txt: indicate "that no advertising system is authorized to buy and sell ads on the website":

creativecommons.org, placeholder, DIRECT, placeholder

Alternatives

do nothing

Additional context

https://iabtechlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ads.txt-1.1.pdf:

3.2.1 FILES WITHOUT AUTHORIZED ADVERTISING SYSTEM RECORDS

Some publishers may choose to not authorize any advertising system by publishing an empty ads.txt file, indicating that no advertising system is authorized to buy and sell ads on the website. So that consuming systems properly read and interpret the empty file (differentiating between web servers returning error pages for the /ads.txt URL), at least one properly formatted line must be included which adheres to the format specification described above. For files that do not otherwise contain authorized advertising system records, use the following "placeholder" record to indicate that the file adheres to the ads.txt specification:

placeholder.example.com, placeholder, DIRECT, placeholder

The domain "example.com" bears no significance: it is used here so that the line will start with a properly formatted, permanently reserved (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6761) alternative domain to a real advertising system domain.

Prior versions of the ads.txt specification indicated that publishers may simply use an empty ads.txt file to indicate that no advertising system is authorized to buy or sell ads on the website. That method is now deprecated because of ambiguities it creates and should be ignored by consuming systems after March 1, 2020.

Implementation

• I would be interested in implementing this feature.