The Standard Information Sharing Label

How are the Labels created?

The Labels are authored by one or more people, based on public information already published in websites Terms of Service, Privacy Policies, or other online documentation. Websites can also create authoritative Labels for the information sharing on their own web pages.

Is the information for the Label automatically extracted from existing Terms of Service and Privacy Policies?

No. A real live person must read and understand the existing practices of data recipients to draft each Label.

How do we know a Label is valid? What if it has errors?

Every Label clearly states who actually created it. It might be the company behind the website or it might be from a crowd-sourced open data repository. Use your own judgment in considering it, just as you would any information you find online.

What do you mean by a crowd-sourced open data repository?

Our goal is to create a open repository of Standard Labels created by individuals, for individuals. Like Wikipedia and other crowd-sourced projects, the information is only as good as the community activity keeping it up to date. The good news is that a vibrant repository has the potential to quickly and effectively create and maintain Standard Labels for thousands of popular websites... even if those websites haven't yet gotten around to creating their own. Plus, by tapping directly into the input of web users anywhere, an open data repository has the potential to represent a collective consensus that might be more objective than a more biased, top-down approach.

When with the specification be ready for use?

We anticipate publishing a 1.0 version of the specification sometime in 2013, at which point we intend to submit it as a formal draft standard to a Standards Development Organization (SDO).

If you have a question, email Joe Andrieu.

The Standard Information Sharing Label

Frequently Asked Questions