User intended interactions [1st & 3rd Parties]

ACTION-27 ISSUE-10

As promised, here is a proposal for "first" and "third" parties. I know
that these names are too sticky to drop now, but the following
definitions are based on the model of meaningful user interaction, not
some *a priori* party definitions.

I tried to give as many examples as I could think of, based on our
conversations about use cases. Please let me know if I've missed some.

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An entity becomes a first party when a user takes an affirmative action
to communicate or interact with that clearly identifiable entity. Unless
the user has taken such affirmative action, an entity is a third party.
The following examples indicate interactions which do and do not meet
this criteria.


1. A user types "nytimes.com" into their browser's URL bar, thereby
loading the New York Times homepage. The New York Times is a first
party. There are no other first parties.
2. A user visits a New York Times article. There are Google "+1" and
Twitter "Tweet this" buttons on the page. The New York Times is a first
party. Google and Twitter are third parties.
3. The user recognizes the Twitter "Tweet this" button, and clicks it in
order to share the article with their tweeps. Twitter is now a first
party to this interaction. Google remains a third party.
4. The user loads a new article. An advertisement loads, and begins
playing loud music. The user clicks the ad's mute button. The ad is at
all times a third party.
5. The user loads a new article. An advertisement loads, and begins
playing loud music. The user clicks the ad's mute button. The ad is at
all times a third party.
6. The user loads a new article. An advertisement loads, and renders in
front of the text of the article, obscuring it. The user clicks a
"close" button on the ad to dismiss it. The ad is at all times a third
party.
7. The user visits a site. There is a weather widget with no obvious
branding. The user thinks that the widget is operated by and part of the
site that they are visiting, because of the lack of obvious branding.
The user clicks on the widget to scroll forward and see tomorrow's
weather. The widget is at all times a third party.
8. The user visits a site with a clearly-branded Accuweather.com weather
widget. The user recognizes the branding, and clicks on the widget to
get more weather information. Accuweather.com is a first party to that
interaction.
9. A user sees an advertisement for Chips Ahoy cookies. The user wants
to buy some cookies, so they click the ad. The Nabisco is a first party.
Nabisco may have hired many advertising companies as vendors.
10. A user sees a tweet which says "Check out this awesome NYT article
bit.ly/1234". The user clicks the link, expecting to be redirected by
bitly to the New York Times. Twitter, bitly and the New York Times are
all first parties to this interaction.
11. A user sees a tweet which says "Check out this awesome NYT article
nyti.ms/1234". The user recognizes that that this is a link to the New
York Times, but doesn't know that the New York Times has hired bit.ly to
do URL shortening. The user clicks the link, expecting to be redirected
by a shortener to the New York Times. Twitter and the New York Times are
all first parties to this interaction. bit.ly is a service provider for
the New York times.
12. A user clicks a links which says "Awesome NYT Article" and points to
framing.com/nyt1234. This page loads nothing but a frame which contains
a New York Times article, but all links are rewritten to pass through
framing.com rather than pointing at other NYT articles. The New York
Times is a first party. Framing.com is a third party.
13. The user clicks one of these links to go to another NYT artcile, and
gets directed to framing.com/nyt1235. The New York Times is a first
party. Framing.com is a third party.