The Open Web Just Got More Transparent (Sort Of)

If you want to start a lively debate in the adtech world, bring up the word “transparency”… and take a step back.

Let’s face it – digital advertising hasn’t exactly always been transparent, even across the open web.

That’s why the launch of OpenSincera by The Trade Desk matters.

For those who missed the announcement: OpenSincera is a new, free API that offers open access to inventory data across the web. It’s built on data from Sincera, the company The Trade Desk acquired a few months back.

And now, integrated with their DSP platform Kokai, it’s being made available to everyone – even outside their ecosystem.

It’s a bold move.

And to be clear: it’s a refreshing step we should applaud.

It reflects a belief that a lot of us share: that advertisers should understand where their dollars are going, not only after they’ve spent the money, but as part of smarter planning & decision-making.

So yes – this matters.

And as the industry pushes for more openness, it’s worth exploring the different layers of transparency this unfolds, what OpenSincera actually provides, and why this is such an important step forward. 

 

What does this bold move from The Trade Desk enable and what advertisers still need to truly see?

Simply put, OpenSincera gives advertisers a directional view of general site-level inventory data, such as how many ads appear on a page at a given point in time, based on what their crawlers captured.

This is progress.

Transparency like this builds trust.

It helps advertisers understand where their dollars could go.

It gives publishers a glimpse into how they’re perceived.

And most of all, it gives the open web something it’s been desperately missing: tools to compete with the algorithmic control of the walled gardens.

But understanding what OpenSincera delivers also means understanding how that data is captured.

The data powering Sincera is collected through web-crawling – bots that visit webpages, scan what’s there, and log what they find.

It’s a smart and efficient method for capturing data at a given moment in time.

But it also comes with a major limitation.

Crawlers aren’t users.

They don’t scroll. They don’t click or come back later in the day on a different device.

They don’t see different content based on context, geography, or behavior.

Confused?

 

Let’s make this real.

Imagine, for example, a crawler visits the homepage of a major publisher – it might see four ads and record that as a proxy for inventory quality.

But you or I opening that same page from a phone in Tel Aviv, or a laptop in New York at 10 p.m., might see something entirely different.

Different ad count.

Different format.

Different layout altogether.

So what the crawler sees is one possible version of the page – a snapshot.

What do real users experience? An always-changing, behavior-driven landscape.

That’s not a flaw.

That’s the trade-off of relying on crawl-based data.

It’s fast, scalable, and directional – and it’s a great start, but it’s still a proxy.

And when proxies are used as performance signals, things get tricky.

Here’s another example.

Let’s say you’re running an ad for baby strollers.

One placement lands on a parenting blog with high scroll depth and active engagement.

Another lands next to a sports car review aimed at single 22-year-olds in Tokyo.

Technically, both ads are “viewable.”

But only one has a real shot at delivering value.

Starting to get the idea?

Let’s do one last example – a real estate ad for luxury homes in Thailand.

For someone house-hunting in Phuket? Perfect.

For me? Wasted.

Sure, all such ads would count as an impression…but will they move the needle?

That’s the gap: crawled data shows what’s present.

But it can’t show what’s relevant, what’s seen, or what resonates.

Optimizing based on static snapshots means optimizing based on partial data.

That’s not a criticism of Sincera – it’s a reality of the methodology.

In fact, Sincera’s launch highlights exactly why the next step is so critical.

 

If we want transparency to truly empower smarter decisions, we need to evolve beyond structure into behavior

We need signals that reflect how people actually engage:

– Did the ad render fully?
– Was it in view long enough to be noticed?
– Did the creative align with the content?
– Did the user stop scrolling or bounce?
– How did the campaign perform compared to others in the same category?
– How many other ads were in view at the same time?

These are the questions advertisers, publishers, and platforms need answered every single day.

OpenSincera gets us closer.

But it doesn’t yet close the gap.

And that’s the opportunity.

Transparency can’t stop at visibility.

It has to extend into understanding.

Let’s help buyers and sellers align on what actually drives $$$ through real-time user behavior, creative performance, brand benchmarking, and competitive comparisons.

And here’s a twist: through Browsi that’s now possible 🤯

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗲𝗱!