What are Terms
From Emanci”Terms” to Agreements
Transition to Comprehensive Agreements:
Traditionally a term would limit a single condition or provision, often within a larger contract. Online, we have seen the kinds of Terms & Conditions presented to us all anytime we interact with a new vendor or visit an entity after they’ve changed up their T&Cs.
Customer Commons developed terms that represent individual’s interests terms in human and legal readable forms, to meet our desire to interact with entities as equals. These terms, depending on context, are groups to make more comprehensive agreements individuals can propose to organizations and individuals. our frameworks. We also have worked with the IEEE P7012 Working Group on a standard for developing a machine readable layer to communicate our terms and agreements in an automated fashion via our own agents.
Customer Commons is continually developing all three layers that constitute agreements. We want to design the most user-friendly and internationally robust offerings in our unified framework that integrates individual’s terms more effectively.
For a complete understanding and application of what were previously standalone terms, we now strongly recommend reviewing our latest agreements. Please visit Your Agreements Matter – Version 1.0 for the most current and effective agreements.
Our Origin
Customer Commons is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, formed as a spin-off of ProjectVRM at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society . We share ProjectVRM's respect for the customer as an independent actor in the marketplace. We also share the same founding thesis, aiming to prove free customers are more valuable than captive ones—to themselves, to the companies they deal with, and to the whole economy.Our Vision
As a public-facing organization focused on emerging issues at the intersection of empowered individuals and the public good, Customer Commons seeks to educate and inspire change, at both local and worldwide scales.Our Mission
To restore the balance of power, respect, and trust between individuals and the organizations that serve them, and to not take contributions from commercial entities.Our Initiatives
Our initiatives focus on research, activism and deployment of new technologies, all angled toward fostering development of tools and services that build community, and make good the title of Doc Searls ' book, The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), and its predecessor, The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual (Basic Books, 2000), which Doc co-wrote with Christopher Locke , Rick Levine and David Weinberger . (Doc started and still runs ProjectVRM, and is a co-founder and board member of Customer Commons.) Today, we are focused on making MyTerms a reality in the world. Join Us.MyTerms™
Our primary focus today is MyTerms. As Doc Searls said, "MyTerms is the most important digital innovation since the WWW". Customer Commons believes it's the only way to get real privacy online. We hope you'll join us.Customer Commons coined 'MyTerms' for the "IEEE 7012-2025 Standard for Machine Readable Personal Privacy Terms" (just as WiFi is for IEEE 802.11) with the goal for MyTerms to be ubiquitous in the digital world.
We conceived the MyTerms Alliance to instantiate the standard into something that benefits us all. Together with MyData Global and The IEEE we are working to make it a reality. MyTerms is a registered trademark of Customer Commons. Contact us with questions.
The Internet Identity Workshop (IIW)
Join us for the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW), held every Spring and Fall at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Customer Commons board members were among the original founders of this unique unconference, and continue to attend and lead sessions. IIW has been finding, probing and solving identity issues twice every year since 2005, and is one of the world's most leveraged events. Each one is also preceded by VRM Day, which is held by ProjectVRM and Customer Commons. The next IIW will be on 3-5 November, 2026, and the next VRM Day will be on 2 November 2026.Your Terms.
Your Control.
Original Use Of Terms [Details]
This is where Customer Commons hosted first party terms individuals can proffer in dealing with sites and services . (Earlier work at ProjectVRM called these EmanciTerms .)
These terms (agreements) should be as standard and off-the-shelf as personal copyright licenses already are at Creative Commons (after which Customer Commons is gratefully modeled). Here is a list of Creative Commons licenses .
Browsers and apps can proffer terms (agreements) by linking to them. Sites and services can agree to those terms (agreements) automatically through their CRM, CX, or other systems for engaging individuals. Agreements can be recorded by both sides in ways that can be tracked and audited by both as well. (For an example of such a system, see JLINC Labs and JLINC.org .)
One possible candidate is P2B1(beta), aka #NoStalking.
In summary form, it tells sites, “don’t track me off your site, and don’t let others track me on your site or anywhere else.” For readers wishing to help keep ad-supported sites alive, it says, “Just show me ads not based on tracking me.” The first publisher committed to accepting this term is Linux Journal, which it explains here .
The larger purpose of this term is to bring the marketplace into compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other regulations. And we expect it will.
