However, the feature had no chance of succeeding because compliance was entirely voluntary.
Today, privacy advocates are proposing a new alternative based on a two-party, machine-readable “contract.”
The standard treats individuals as “first parties,” while service providers are considered the second party.
Searls cites theNoStalking agreementfrom the Customer Commons platform as an example of a MyTerms contract.
This agreement communicates to websites that the user does not wish to be tracked while being served ads.
Direct negotiations over terms or the creation of additional agreements fall outside the scope of the technology.
However, the HTTP-based technology waseventually abandonedby all major browsers after it proved practically useless.
Whether MyTerms will fare better remains to be seen in the years to come.
