What is scarce?

"The Internet Is Broken" proclaims the title of a recent MIT Technology Review cover story, while Stanford University's Clean Slate Initiative explores the idea of scrapping the existing Net and starting over.

Spam brings us phishing attacks that deliver malware that in turn builds botnets. Fraud and predation pervade the everyday online experience. Identities – and cash – are stolen in batches. As the information security industry assures us “we're working on it,” people grow ever more wary of their Internet experience even as they come to depend upon it more and more.

In his groundbreaking book, Quiet Enjoyment, Wes Kussmaul adds to the roster of acknowledged threats a major, unacknowledged attack on our privacy: database table joins that put new power into the hands of those who destroy our privacy in order to gain wealth and power by aggregating personal information and manipulating our perceptions, all while trying to make us believe that their privacy policies have some kind of significance.

But Quiet Enjoyment doesn't dwell on the problems. Rather, it proceeds directly from analysis to a solid, comprehensive solution called the Quiet Enjoyment Infrastructure. You don't believe there's a comprehensive solution? Do as Dan Geer suggests and “Read this book.”

If we frame the problem statement as providing authenticity before security, we see that mankind has developed over centuries a superb set of methods and procedures for addressing it. New digital “construction materials” combined with these old processes will deliver precisely what we're looking for: privacy, security, reliability, and authenticity.

Authenticity works where security technology has failed us.

The Quiet Enjoyment approach will deliver authenticity to a world that desperately needs it. But we at The Authenticity Institute can't do it all ourselves. The solution calls for new enterprises, both commercial and noncommercial; and it calls for practitioners of new professions.

Help build a future where children are safe from online predation and adults are free to live their lives in the safety and privacy that Quiet Enjoyment provides. Authenticity will take hold through the involvement of smart, focused people like yourself. If you want to make a difference not just in the world but in your own life, read on.