Getting Ready for MyTerms

Getting Ready for MyTerms

The standard called IEEE P7012, nicknamed MyTerms, has been in the works since 2017 and should be done later this year. Here is what makes it the most important standard in development today: It reverses consent for websites and services, by having them agree to your terms, rather than the icky non-system we've had since the invention of the cookie.

The diagram above outlines how it works.

A roster of possible contracts—which you, the person, proffer as the first party—will sit at a public website maintained by a nonprofit. Customer Commons (a 501c3) was created to perform exactly that service, and is modeled to do for personal terms what Creative Commons does for personal copyright licenses. If the engaged site or service agrees to your contract, both sign it electronically and keep an identical copy and record of the engagement.

Note that, like all agreements, these contracts need to be good for both sides. This means people need to express their friendly intentions along with their privacy requirements. it also means that all sites and services that genuinely care about personal privacy should be willing to sign agreements respecting their visitors' and customers' privacy requirements.

What we need now is tech development (in browsers, apps, smart agents, or whatever) that will handle this basically simple engagement on both the personal and corporate sides.

We also need to plan or how this gets rolled out in the world and evangelized. Also how we'll work on getting ballsl rolling at IIW, which will happen over the following three days in the same location: Silicon Valley's Computer History Museum.

We'll make up the agenda on site.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Computer History Museum, 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View, United States