What We Are

The Power of You!™

Lumeria was founded in February 1998 on the principle that the most valuable part of computing is your personal information. And that your information needs to be safe, well-guarded, yet easy for you to access and share with others. Once your personal information can be safely and anonymously shared anytime and anywhere, personalization can take a great leap forward, making personal computers more personal -- and helping make computers easier to use by making them more people-literate, so people don't have to be as computer-literate.

Originally, Lumeria did R&D in the areas of Identity Management and Personal Knowledge Management so that our platform could support identity-based knowledge-sharing and global identities to enhance personalization, security, and trust on the web. Since that time, we have spun off our Personal Knowledge Management efforts into a new company called Linkify, which has developed a next-generation web application for collaboration and knowledge sharing. Lumeria then sharpened its focus on Identity Management and the development of new technology to create an identity-based, secure information-sharing platform that would address Internet privacy, profiling, and personalization.

Lumeria's "Sunshine" Platform

Over the past three years, Lumeria has developed new edge-of-the-web foundation technologies -- code-named "Sunshine" -- that can dramatically improve the security, efficiencies, and effectiveness of any online transaction, whether for commerce or content, for business or for individuals. The main components of the Sunshine system are the SuperProxy, The ODX (Open Document eXchange) server, and the SuperID/SuperProfile. Lumeria's cutting-edge object-oriented software infrastructure components are developed using Java and XML -- they can by used together or separately for a wide range of business uses, including privacy protection, proxy services, XML security, and identity management (including digital signatures and secure profiling). Lumeria has also developed a proxy platform (the SuperProxy) that can allow many types of applications to be run directly from the edge-of-the-web without the need for the usual client software download.

A Comprehensive Security, Privacy, and Profiling Solution

Internet privacy has become an important issue with consumers, the media, and government regulators. Simple privacy products fail to address the issue because they take a piecemeal approach to the problem by simply blocking access by marketers -- even when it would be to a person's benefit for a certain kind of marketer to know about particular information in order to provide better relevancy, receive special offers, or obtain better customer service. Lumeria's SuperProfile system provides a unique, proprietary, and sophisticated solution to balancing an individual's right to privacy and to control their information with a company's need to know about current and potential customers to assist in customer acquisition, interaction, service, and retention. Lumeria is the only company with the infrastructure enabling it to provide both consumers and businesses the information, products, and services they need while protecting the security and privacy of all parties. 

Traditional marketing methods are becoming less effective as people get better at filtering out intrusive marketing messages and sales efforts. As people become more concerned about privacy, marketers will have a harder time collecting information about customers. Lumeria believes that consumers will ultimately demand control over their private information and refuse to surrender it without an adequate assurance of privacy protection and value exchange. The SuperProfile system provides a win for both buyers and sellers by allowing trusted agents, brokers and auditors to share profile information, at the request of the individual consumer, with marketers, merchants, content providers, or other consumers. 

Lumeria's infomediary profiling approach reduces the inefficiencies and intrusions created by unsolicited commercial mail and telemarketing calls because direct marketers can now engage highly targeted consumers, with whom they have pre-negotiated, in a protected "pseudo-anonymous" marketing dialogue that provides accurate, auditable information about individuals, while protecting their actual identity. In addition to providing consumers with a free market economy for their personal information, the SuperProfile can also be used by web sites, content developers, and software developers to deliver a more personal computing experience such as customized content, targeted searching, and more intuitive user interfaces.

According to the latest research we have assembled, privacy has become one of the major social issues of our times. A recent Harris Interactive survey commissioned by the National Consumers League found that:

• 56 percent of Americans said they are ``very concerned'' about the loss of personal privacy, outranking major social issues such as health care, crime and taxes. Among the issues the poll presented, only education elicited more concern (58 percent).

• 64 percent said they are very concerned about sites passing along information about them to others without their knowledge.

• 71 percent said it is ``absolutely essential'' that companies ask for consumers' permission before using their personal information for any purpose other than the one for which it was originally given.

A recent Business Week/Harris Poll found 92 percent of Internet users worried about Web sites sharing personal information with others. A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported similar findings, adding that 94 percent of respondents said Internet firms and their top executives should be punished for privacy violations. 

A recent Ecom-Ohio report found that 45% of consumers would not engage in e-commerce due to privacy concerns 

Even online marketers now see the value of consumer privacy protection. According to a recent study by Millward Brown Intelliquest, 92% of online marketers said consumers would probably be more likely shop online if their privacy was protected.

For Further Information

• Read an overview of Lumeria's Sunshine technology.

• See a chart showing the architecture of the Lumeria Sunshine platform.

• View Lumeria's company powerpoint presentation (requires IE 5 or higher)

• Discover how our SuperProfile can serve you.

• Learn how information helps to define us -- both as individuals and as communities.

• Investigate Lumeria's Privacy Statement.