MERS for web properties

[dmarti]

In the USA, mortgage-backed securities trading is made practical by a corporation called MERS: Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.. MERS is registered with county records offices as the mortgage holder, so that no public records actually change when a mortgage-backed security is traded. The obligations of the property owner to make mortgage payments, and the interests of the securities owner, are covered in confidential documents that are not filed with the county.

A common ownership requirement for First-Party Sets would likely result in the formation of a MERS-like entity for web properties, call it "WERS". This organization would be able to afford to meet the requirements of UA Policy, publicly register and represent a valid First Party Set owner as the owner of each domain in the set, and enter into confidential agreements with the individuals or entities that actually make decisions about handling of user data collected on each participating site. Thanks to scale and connections, WERS will be better at complying with UA Policy than small multi-domain publishers and brands that do not use WERS, especially those located in countries where a browser has users but not lawyers who understand how to obtain and check corporate ownership records.

First-Party Sets would clearly require common privacy policy, data stewardship policies, and user-understandable brand identity. An ownership requirement would add additional record-keeping and legal expenses for sites and user agents without improving anything for users.

Related: #48 #75

[jwrosewell]

Related: #51, #50