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Security report for transparentadvertising.com

The Trade Desk · Technology · United States

Medium risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

The website transparentadvertising.com serves as a Transparency and Control Portal for users to opt out of targeted advertising based on UID2 identifiers derived from their email addresses or phone numbers. It is operated by The Trade Desk, a large technology company specializing in advertising technology. The portal provides a user-friendly form for submitting opt-out requests and includes links to a privacy policy and a vulnerability disclosure page, demonstrating some commitment to transparency and security. However, the site currently lacks a valid SSL certificate, which is a critical security deficiency that undermines user trust and data protection. The technical infrastructure relies on dated technologies such as jQuery and jQuery UI, hosted likely on Amazon AWS, with slow page load times and large page size impacting user experience. Security measures include HSTS and Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise integration, but the absence of HTTPS and modern TLS protocols significantly lowers the security posture. Privacy compliance is basic, with no explicit GDPR compliance or cookie consent mechanisms visible. Overall, the site is functional but requires urgent improvements in security and privacy to meet modern standards.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 100 · High
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

2 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

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Keep watching transparentadvertising.com

This scan found 15 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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Recommended

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
95
Security headers
75
Email security
50
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
74

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The Trade Desk positions itself as a key player in the digital advertising ecosystem by providing the UID2 transparency and opt-out portal, targeting consumers concerned about privacy and targeted advertising. The business model focuses on advertising technology services, enabling users to control their ad targeting preferences. The company leverages partnerships and maintains a mature domain with consistent registration details. The portal's limited direct contact information and basic privacy disclosures suggest a focus on streamlined user interaction rather than extensive customer support. The presence of a vulnerability disclosure link indicates an awareness of security responsibilities. Growth opportunities exist in enhancing privacy compliance and improving technical performance to strengthen user trust and regulatory alignment.

Security posture

The website's security posture is currently weak due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of HTTPS, exposing users to potential data interception risks. While HSTS is enabled and Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise is used to protect form submissions, the lack of modern TLS protocols, OCSP stapling, and session resumption further degrade security quality. No advanced security headers beyond HSTS are detected. The vulnerability disclosure link is a positive indicator of security transparency, but the site lacks a formal security policy or incident response contact information. Compliance with GDPR and other data protection regulations appears minimal. Immediate remediation of SSL/TLS issues and enhancement of security headers and policies are recommended to mitigate risks.

Recommendations

  1. Install and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3) and implement OCSP stapling and session resumption.
  3. Add comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Develop and publish detailed privacy and cookie policies with explicit GDPR compliance statements.
  5. Provide clear contact information including security incident response and data protection officer contacts.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a traditional tech stack centered on jQuery and jQuery UI for UI components, with Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise integrated for bot protection. Hosting is inferred to be on Amazon AWS based on IP addresses. The page load time is slow (8.6 seconds) with a large page size (~995 KB), indicating potential optimization opportunities. No modern frameworks or CMS platforms are detected. SEO and accessibility features are basic, with minimal meta tags and no structured data such as JSON-LD. The site is mobile responsive at a basic level but could benefit from improved performance and accessibility enhancements. Technical debt is evident in the outdated libraries and lack of HTTPS, posing risks to business operations and user trust.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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