An Open-Source Solution for Opt Out Durability

In an effort to raise the bar on consumer privacy and choice, BlueKai has created “Ahi” an open-source solution to make consumer opt-outs durable. Ahi helps solve the apparent paradox that has troubled consumers: some people opt-out of third party cookies and those same people delete their cookies – but when they delete their cookies, there is no way to remember their opt out preferences. The Ahi solution solves this by remembering consumers' opt-out preferences even after the deletion of third party cookies. Ahi was designed to be adopted and made available by independent industry groups who want to provide a durable opt-out mechanism for all consumers. It is also meant to work with multiple industry groups without forcing consumers to install multiple opt-out solutions.

In general, Ahi can be used to create a list of opt-outs that are to be defended (NOT removed) when third party cookies are cleared. This will ensure that opt-out preferences are maintained persistently on behalf of consumers who want to opt out of online ad targeting driven by third party cookies.

While the code is created by BlueKai, it has some very important features relevant to the privacy community:

• It does not protect cookies in general. It only protects non-unique opt-out cookies. Unique cookies with data about individual customers can not be made persistent by Ahi.


• The code is open-source so it does not have executable code that serves hidden purposes. It has been reviewed by a set of competitive companies who want to ensure fairness.


• The opt-out protector mechanism does not communicate with BlueKai in any way. Its only job is to keep a set of opt-out cookies persistent.


• It only communicates with the industry group that maintains the opt-out list (for example, the NAI). The nature of the code is to only ask one basic question to the industry groups: “What set of opt-outs should I protect and how can I set a currently valid opt-out for each member company in the industry group?”


• Ahi does not create any log of consumer behavior.


• BlueKai does not maintain an opt-out list. We leave this solely in the hands of industry groups (for example, the NAI)


• A single instance of Ahi can be used to protect multiple opt-out lists

The Network Advertising Initiative has recently adopted the BlueKai solution and are launching a beta version. Their version of Ahi is named: “NAI Opt-Out Protector Firefox Plug-in”. For more information, visit http://www.networkadvertising.org.

If you have any questions regarding the BlueKai Ahi solution for opt-out durability, please contact privacy@bluekai.com.