MyTerms is highly relevant to the AI agent ecosystem because agents act as intermediaries between users and services. For an agent to operate autonomously, it needs a clear, machine-readable set of permissions regarding its user's data. MyTerms provides exactly this: a legal and technical framework that tells an agent what it is allowed to share and under what conditions.
In a world where agents navigate the web on behalf of people, the IEEE 7012 standard could become the 'rules of engagement' for those agents. Without such a standard, agents are forced to navigate the same broken 'notice and consent' loops that human users face. MyTerms offers a path toward a 'Agent-to-Service' protocol where privacy is negotiated programmatically, making it a foundational layer for anyone building personal AI representatives that prioritize user sovereignty.
MyTerms is an attempt to solve the fundamental asymmetry of the internet: the fact that individuals must agree to thousands of pages of legalese to use basic services. Instead of clicking "I Agree" to corporate terms, MyTerms allows individuals to present their own terms to the services they use. This shift is codified in the IEEE 7012-2025 standard, formally known as the Standard for Machine Readable Personal Privacy Terms. By making privacy terms machine-readable, the project intends to automate the negotiation of data privacy, effectively giving users a digital representative that can say "no" to surveillance at scale.
The effort is led by the MyTerms Alliance, a global network of privacy advocates. Notable figures include Doc Searls, a co-author of the Cluetrain Manifesto and a long-time proponent of Vendor Relationship Management (VRM). Searls has spent decades arguing that the internet should work for the individual, not just the platform. MyTerms is the technical realization of that philosophy, moving from abstract manifestos to a formal IEEE standard. The alliance operates as a decentralized movement rather than a traditional startup, funded by donations and supported by technical contributors who build the underlying logic for the agreements.
The core of the MyTerms proposal is a set of five standardized agreements. These agreements are designed to be simple, common-sense contracts that cover personal data exchange. Because they are machine-readable, they can be embedded in browser extensions, static websites, or API headers. When a user visits a site, their browser can automatically signal the user's terms to the server. If the server is configured to respect IEEE 7012, a binding agreement is formed without the user ever reading a pop-up. This is a rejection of the "notice and consent" model, which the MyTerms team describes as broken and sludge-ridden.
Currently, MyTerms exists in an early stage of adoption. The project website contains several broken links, which indicates a transition from the drafting of the standard to the actual rollout of the implementation. The primary hurdle is not technical but social and institutional. For MyTerms to work, the other side of the transaction—the organizations—must be willing to accept individual terms. This is a significant ask for a web economy built on opaque tracking. However, the alliance targets organizations that are not dependent on surveillance, seeking to create a "sub-set of the internet" where fair data exchange is the default. It's a long-game play to build a parallel, privacy-respecting infrastructure that operates alongside the traditional web.
A machine-readable standard for individual privacy terms.