Press Releases

Lumeria Announces Platform for "Infomediaries"

Lumeria's SuperProfile© Technology Enables Dynamic New Business Model

February 9, 1999 (El Cerrito, CA) - Lumeria Inc. announced today that its SuperProfile personal profiling technology will serve as a platform for "infomediaries." This announcement is being made subsequent to the release of Net Worth, a new book on this business model by John Hagel III and Marc Singer, published by Harvard Business School Press. According to Hagel and Singer, the Internet will enable a new type of business, called an infomediary, which serves as an intermediary between consumers and vendors in order to help consumers maximize the value of their personal information. Infomediaries will then act as brokers and agents that represent consumers in commercial transactions and marketing. Lumeria is pleased to announce that its SuperProfile technology not only supports the infomediary business model, it also provides an open and extensible platform for other infomediaries that wish to partner with Lumeria to build the dynamic new market described in Net Worth.

Lumeria's SuperProfile technology, which is based on the principles of the World Wide Web consortium's Platform for Privacy Preferences project (P3P), allows individuals to reclaim their privacy and take control of their personal information. Only the individual knows the contents of and has control over the SuperProfile. Lumeria promises not to reveal any information without the consumer's explicit consent and takes technological measures to prevent the individual's profile from being known, even to Lumeria. Lumeria's SuperProfile, Identity Management tools, and Identity Commerce™ system, work together to enable users to reclaim their privacy and surf anonymously while still maintaining the legitimate benefits of profiling, such as personalization and customized content.

Net Worth predicts that infomediaries will profoundly affect today's markets by shifting the balance of power from marketers to consumers, who are then in a position to make most of the rules. In their book, the authors state, "Infomediaries will protect the privacy of their clients and provide new ways for customers and vendors to find each other. They will also create considerable wealth for infomediaries' investors. A dominant infomediary will generate as much as $700 million in revenue by its fifth year of existence and command over $20 billion in shareholder value by its tenth."

Lumeria was founded to create technology, software, and services that help people securely access, organize, and selectively share their information across networks. Lumeria assures individuals that their personal information will be private, secure, and available to them anytime, anywhere. The company can be reached via its Web site at www.lumeria.com.

Net Worth, by John Hagel III and Marc Singer, was published by Harvard Business School Press this month and is available at Amazon.com. Lumeria, SuperProfile, and Identity Commerce are trademarks of Lumeria Inc. For more information on P3P see www.w3.org.