In the last years, the Internet has been increasingly centralized into the hands of GAFAM and other over-the-top companies that built walled gardens in fields like messaging and social networks. More and more of these companies have user data monetization and targeted advertising as a core revenue stream; thus, tracking people across their Internet activities is necessary to their existence.

This is why they have also built closed identity systems that supply single-sign-on and very easy sign up for new websites and services, at the expense of privacy and user control. As managing hundreds of separate accounts is inconvenient and insecure, and as alternatives such as password managers are not easy enough for the average Internet user, clicking on “sign in with Google” or “sign in with Facebook” has become a very common choice.

We think that this is bad for the Internet in general, and thus we are creating a platform that allows anyone to provide identities, creating an open, public and federated single-sign-on and data management system. We are extending OpenID Connect just a bit, the bit that is necessary to break the silos and allow interoperability; and we are basing the system on the DNS, the widely available and already federated naming directory of the Internet.

The talk will explain how the system works and encourage participation and contributions.