Augustine Fou, a cybersecurity and ad fraud expert, shares his journey in the digital advertising industry, explaining how ad fraud and bad-practices are funding misinformation and disinformation online, directly threatening society and, indirectly, the self-sustainability of quality news media companies. He walks through the last 15 years of digital advertising history, explaining how it became so problematic and why he is optimistic about the future, convinced that change has begun. Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:52 Career trajectory and discovering ad fraud 06:52 Antitrust case vs Google and understanding past mistakes 07:42 The issue with the programmatic open marketplace 09:47 The negative impact of open marketplace 11:36 How advertisers were led down the wrong path and re-educating them 15:26 Quality media owners legitimizing bad actors 17:49 Brand safety and unintended consequences 20:05 Benefits of working with quality media 22:25 Tips for media owners to help advertisers 26:05 Why such a resistance to change from advertisers 27:12 Optimism about advertisers becoming more careful 28:02 Advice to young professionals entering the industry