A cookie is a small file created and sent by a web server to be stored on your device by your browser.
Cookies were first use by the Prodigy online service in 1989, though the term had not been coined yet. Originally named Trintex after its trio of original partners IBM, Sears and CBS, Prodigy caused a massive outrage when some observant users discovered in their computers bits and pieces of their data in two files: stage.dat and cache.dat.
The public was shocked at the thought that an outsider was writing files to their own computer. Worse, they were doing it surreptitiously!
How attitudes toward privacy and personal property have changed!
Companies have their way with our digital selves, as represented by their treatment of our personal devices as their own espionage outposts.
And people have resigned themselves to the abuse.
Let’s change that.
Cookies are of two types: session cookies and persistent cookies.
A session cookie keeps track of your choices during a visit to a site, providing continuity within your visit before disappearing when you close the browser tab.
A persistent cookie remains in your device after your visit, remembering your preferences, login information, browsing activity and other information, enabling a site to recognize you and personalize its interactions with you. Often, persistent cookies provide information about you to companies other than the owner of the site that placed the cookie.
A Polite Cookie assures you that information about your visit to a site is used only by your permission, and only by parties to whom you have given that permission.
What’s the difference between Polite Cookies and the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive regulations governing cookies?
GDPR and ePrivacy let you make cookie choices. But to what extent is the website required to honor your choices? Is there any requirement beyond a simple cookie statement?
The Osmio Polite Cookies Ordinance is a law that binds the site owner to acknowledge that any information you share in a cookie is your personal intellectual property, that its use is strictly by permission from you, and that no persistent cookies will be placed unless you tell the site’s owner that you want to have a relationship with them.
In addition to, or replacing, other cookie messages and cookies, the following message will appear on a website that uses Polite Cookies:
In addition to, or replacing, other cookie messages and cookies, the following message will appear on a website that uses Polite Cookies:
We acknowledge that information about you, including information in cookies, is Your Personal Intellectual Property. We use a session cookie only to help make this site useful to you. Persistent cookies help us create a relationship with you, if that’s what you want.
A site observing the Polite Cookies protocol will provide two choices:
If you choose “Don’t Remember Me” then the only record of your visit will be anonymous and statistical, letting the site owner know how many visitors were there.
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“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.”
— Voltaire
No Tracking Pixels or Beacons
Today's internet has become infested with hidden trackers — tiny “pixel beacons,” scripts, and device tracking tools designed to follow you without your knowledge.
As a Member Enterprise of The Authenticity Alliance, the operator of this website uses no tracking pixels, no beacons, and no covert identity-reporting mechanisms of any kind.
What is Authenticity™?
The word “Authenticity™” identifies a digital or physical space of “accountable anonymity” in which people enjoy both privacy for themselves and accountability from others.
Authenticity™ is the condition that exists in a space where there are
- Digital Signatures Everywhere backed by
- Measurably Reliable Identity Certificates that are
- Owned by their Users and which provide
- Privacy via Accountable Anonymity.
Learn about digital signatures and identity certificates in this short video →
What is The Authenticity Alliance?
We are an Authenticity Growers Cooperative
Similar to familiar agricultural cooperatives in the physical world, The Authenticity Alliance is a network of enterprises and individuals whose purpose is to “grow” Authenticity and bring it to the digital world.
Each Authenticity Enterprise—that is, each Member Enterprise of the Alliance—solves a particular inauthenticity problem in its chosen target market or audience.
What Does The Authenticity Alliance Do?
The Alliance brings together independent enterprises that share a common mission: creating spaces of accountable anonymity where digital signatures, reliable identity certificates, and privacy protection work together to solve real-world inauthenticity problems.
WHO is the Authenticity Alliance?
The Authenticity Alliance is comprised of two groups working together to promote trust and transparency across digital ecosystems.
- Enterprises: Authenticity Enterprises that provide Authenticity solutions for the inauthenticity pains in a specific market or industry.
- Individuals: People who understand the problems of inauthenticity that plague the world’s information systems and who want to help implement and promote Authenticity™ principles.
Authenticity Enterprises
Each is an Enterprise Member of The Authenticity Alliance
Placeware Enterprises
Solutions Enterprises
Community Enterprises
Governance Enterprises
Individual Enterprise in The Authenticity Alliance
Customers and members of an Authenticity Enterprise are automatically eligible to become Individual Members of The Authenticity Alliance.You may also join directly as an individual Member here.
