Abstract
Verifying that a single creator or publisher controls multiple disparate online properties, such as websites and social media profiles, can be a challenge. Existing methods may rely on bilateral agreements between platforms, which may not be scalable and can create friction. This disclosure describes a decentralized cryptographic method for verifying ownership. A creator may generate a unique public-private key pair and can use the private key to sign the canonical URL of each online property, creating a digital signature. The creator can then provide the public key and the corresponding digital signature to each platform, which may embed this information into the property's publicly accessible metadata, for example, through structured data markup. This may enable a third party to crawl the properties and cryptographically confirm that properties sharing the same public key may be controlled by the same entity. This can provide a scalable and open system for asserting ownership across the web.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Krasney, Nick; Li, Yi; and Kaushal, Govind, "Verifying Ownership of Online Profiles and Web Sites for Creators and Publishers", Technical Disclosure Commons, (July 14, 2025)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/8352