Strengthen Web Security on The Day We Fight Back

We see pervasive monitoring as an attack on the Web and its users. The Web is for everyone. The W3C community builds Web protocols and formats to enable individuals and groups to communicate with those they are trying to reach, and to protect those communications from eavesdropping of third parties.

Vulnerabilities to pervasive surveillance threaten to erode trust in the Web and in the companies that depend on it, and that is one of the reasons why numerous Web and Internet organizations spoke out last fall, in the Montevideo Statement.

Momentum for greater security is building. A number of organizations from around the Web and across the spectrum have declared today, 11 February, "The Day We Fight Back" against mass surveillance.

Many of the people and organizations participating in the call to action bring perspectives that would enhance W3C's efforts to secure the shared resources of the Web. Some are current W3C participants, but not all. On this day of heightened attention to security from a broad community, we call on the technical community to help us improve how we build security and privacy into the fabric of the Web by participating in our activities:

* We are building a comprehensive program of security and privacy coordination with working groups, we review the security and privacy considerations of specifications in development and their interactions in the Web ecosystem. Join the Privacy Interest Group or Web Security Interest Group to participate in those reviews.

* We develop technology standards to serve as building blocks of secure Web applications, such as CORS and the WebCrypto API.

* We are co-hosting a workshop on “Strengthening the Internet,” to gather ideas from the wider community on the security standards agendas of the IETF and W3C.

* We develop Web standards through open, participatory process by which we document the technical reasons for decisions. We do not believe any of W3C’s Recommendations were weakened through interference; we are always open to hear concerns.

W3C is committed to building a secure Web. We are all aware of many different types of attack and security and we must be vigilant to strengthen security against all attacks. Please join us in our mission to improve Web security.