ACTION-273: Multiple First Parties

This text reflects proposed text for Section 3.5.1.2.2, with a textual change that I received and adding language to clarify the status of "simple" web plugins.  With this draft, I suggest that the status of ACTION-273 be changed to "pending review."

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3.5.1.2.2 Multiple First Parties

For many websites, there will be only one party that the average user would expect to communicate with: the provider of the website the user has visited. But, for other websites, users may expect to communicate with more than one party.  In these instances, a party will be deemed a first party on a particular website if it concludes that a user would reasonably expect to communicate with it using the website.

URIs, branding, the presence of privacy policies or other disclosures that specifically identify a party, and the extent to which a party provides meaningful content or functionality on the website, may contribute to, but are not necessarily determinative of, user perceptions about whether a website is provided by more than one party.

Example: Example Sports, a well-known sports league, collaborates with Example Streaming, a well-known streaming video website, to provide content on a sports-themed video streaming website. The website is prominently advertised and branded as being provided by both Example Sports and ExampleStreaming. An ordinary user who visits the website may recognize that it isoperated by both Example Sports and Example Streaming.  Both Example Sports and Example Streaming are first parties.

Example: Example Sports has a dedicated page on a Example Social, a social networking website. The page is branded with both Example Sports’ name and logo and Example Social’s name and logo.  Both Example Sports’ name and Example Social’s names appear in the URI for the page.  When a user visits this dedicated page, both Example Sports and Example Social are first parties.

Example:  Example Fan Club operates a sports fan website that posts articles about sports teams.  Example Streaming provides an embeddable widget that allows the display of a video from a sports game.  Example Fan Club embeds this widget at the bottom of one of its articles.  The website does not identify Example Streaming in the URI, includes no Example Streaming branding, and does not refer to the Example Streaming privacy policy.  The only functionality that Example Streaming provides on the website is the display of the video through its widget.  Consistent with the standard described in section 3.5.1.2.1, Example Fan Club is a first party and Example Streaming is a third party.

Rob Sherman
Facebook | Manager, Privacy and Public Policy
1155 F Street, NW Suite 475 | Washington, DC 20004
office 202.370.5147 | mobile 202.257.3901