Cloudflare And Major Browser Makers Team Up To Build Privacy-Preserving Protocol For The Agentic Web – SMBtech
Publish Date: 2026-06-28 02:20:00
Source Domain: smbtech.au
Cloudflare has launched a joint initiative with Mozilla, Google, Microsoft and Shopify to develop a new privacy-preserving protocol designed to help websites verify whether traffic is coming from a legitimate human or an authorised bot without resorting to invasive tracking.
The protocol, called Private Access Control Tokens (PACT), is intended to be submitted for standardisation and would replace the patchwork of CAPTCHAs, forced logins and tracking cookies that website operators currently rely on to manage automated abuse.
The initiative comes as bot traffic has overtaken human traffic on the internet, and the rise of AI-powered agents is making it increasingly difficult for site operators to distinguish between legitimate and malicious requests.
How PACT Works
Private Access Control Tokens are designed to allow sites with strong knowledge of “personhood” to issue anonymous tokens. A user’s browser can then provide these tokens to other sites to prove that a human is involved in the session.
The protocol is built so that none of this involves tracking or the ability for sites to identify the user or access their browsing history. The aim is to reduce reliance on CAPTCHAs and invasive tracking while still giving website operators the ability to filter out malicious automated traffic.
PACT leverages trusted information from contexts that have authentic relationships with people while keeping that information private. This is intended to provide businesses with assurances about their audiences without adding friction to the user experience.
The Problem PACT Is Trying To Solve
For decades, website operators have relied on a mix of defence mechanisms to manage automated abuse, but these tools are increasingly failing to keep pace with the volume and sophistication of modern bot traffic.
The explosion of generative AI has accelerated the problem. Malicious automation has become more widespread and economically damaging to site owners. As AI agents begin to handle tasks…
