Dots identifies itself as an agent and stores cookies in the cloud
A fraud-prevention practitioner analyzes two OpenAI Dots design choices: announcing itself as a personal assistant when visiting sites, and storing cookies in the cloud to skip repeated CAPTCHAs.
Last week OpenAI launched Dots, its personal agent, but what caught my eye was a fascinating infrastructure decision they made: Many of the other personal agents don’t self-identify as such to websites they visit. They just look like other bots. Unlike those, Dots is clearly announcing itself as an agent. By doing so, it bypasses the need to rely on Fastly or Cloudflare edge data centers for IP proximity to the end user. This makes our job as fraud fighters easier, but we still have to answer the other two questions. Does this agent belong to this customer? Is the agent doing something the customer would hand off? These are arguably much harder questions to answer than if the bot is actually a personal agent. Another design choice I liked by the OpenAI team - Dots stores your cookies in the cloud. This lets you bypass repetitive OTPs and log back into your favorite sites instantly. Crucially, they’ve paired this convenience with clear, accessible privacy controls that let you easily delete your cookies. Getting security, privacy, and ease of use in the right balance will take time when it comes to these agents but it feels like OAI is on the right track. More to come on fraud and fincrime fighting in the age of personal agents!