Overview
The OpenPrivacy initiative is an Open Source collection of software frameworks, protocols and services providing a cryptographically secure and distributed platform for creating, maintaining, and selectively sharing user profile information.
In effect, OpenPrivacy is the first open platform that enables user control over personal data while simultaneously - and at user discretion - providing marketers with access to higher quality profile segments. The resulting marketplace for anonymous demographic profiles will create opportunities for a new breed of personalized services that provide people and businesses with timely and relevant information. Throughout the system, information may be shared with guaranteed personal privacy, creating at last a level playing field for the user, marketer and infomediaries.
Several projects are in the works, listed with the most-developed initiative first:We are interested in finding people who would like to help with any and all of these projects. OpenPrivacy is a grassroots effort creating open source (and free) code. Our goal is to create a saner, safer Internet.
- Sierra, a reference implementation of the Reputation Management Framework (RMF)
- OpenPrivacy's core project is designed to ease the process of creating community with reputation enhanced pseudonymous entities. The RMF is primarily a set of four interfaces: Nym Manager, Communications Manager, Storage Manager and Reputation Calculation Engine (RCE). Sierra is a reference implementation that meets these interfaces.
- Talon
- A simple yet powerful component system for Java. Sierra is being developed using Talon and we expect that Talon will soon be able to use Sierra's reputation manager to drive component selection
- Zero-knowledge proof of sibling nym relationships by parent
- paper forthcoming
- Reputation Capital Exchange
- A secure mechanism for mapping between RCEs that use different trust metrics. This is accomplished by first attaching an OpenPrivacy-style Nym to the local namespace user name, and then by authenticating a match between these secure nyms.
- Reptile
- An open source/free software Syndicated Content Directory Server (SCDS) that provides a personalized news and information portal with privacy and reputation accumulation.
- User Content License - Reversing the Privacy Policy Circle
- Adding an HTTP header prior to the request being transferred from client to server that contains a user copyright notice for any data transferred from the client. (While not directly related to the concept of anonymous profile data, we think it's a cool hack!)
Longer Term Goals
The OpenPrivacy platform enables applications that will afford the user many direct benefits without the loss of privacy or fear that their data is being used inappropriately, including the ability to:- provide a standard framework (objects and protocols) for general purpose reputation management
- enjoy the benefits (TBD: describe) of personalized information without loss of privacy
- browse (if and when they chose) offers from businesses and marketers
- respond to offers directly or through third party infomediaries
- maintain confidence that their profile is being used only as permitted
- understand and leverage the value of their profile information
