Microsoft Advertising responded to questions late Thursday about its validation process for media buys following Google’s announcement it would require all advertisers to verify their identity before buying media across search, display and YouTube video.

Google on Thursday said it would close loopholes that help to create ad fraud by requiring all advertisers running ads across its platforms to verify their identity, as the company continues to make sweeping changes to prevent advertisers from misrepresenting themselves.

Microsoft Advertising has steps in place to review and vet advertisers when they first sign up a new account, as well as on an ongoing basis, wrote Christi Olson, Microsoft Advertising Evangelist, in an email to Search Marketing Daily.

“For new accounts, each domain submitted goes through validation checks,” she wrote. “Keywords and ad copy are also routed for systematic checks to look for fraud or other policy violations.”

Olson explained that if an existing advertiser makes future submissions to their account, these also go through the same checks to continuously check for potential issues.

When Google made the announcement, some agencies were concerned that the verification process would allow marketers to gain a list of their competitors’ clients — specifically those running in-house campaigns with brands when it is required to hold non-disclosure agreements.

Google quickly squashed that concern, saying disclosures will show the trademarked or legal name of the end advertiser behind the ad and not the agency representing an advertiser.

Google said it will allow agencies to verify an advertisers’ identity on behalf of their clients, however, they will need to do so on an individual client basis.