Glossary

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Access Provider (Internet Services Provider or ISP)
A company that provides its customers access to the internet. The user normally connects to the provider's network server through a modem using a dial-up connection.

ActiveX
ActiveX is a programming model. ActiveX technology is used to make interactive pages that look and behave like computer programs, rather than static pages. ActiveX applications allow users to ask or answer questions, use push buttons, and interact in different ways with a page.

Ad Clicks or Click-Throughs
Number of times that users click on an ad banner.

Address Verification
Process used by a credit card processor or other party to verify that a customer's ordering address matches their records.

Ad Views (Impressions)
Number of times an ad banner is downloaded from a server and presumably seen by a site browser. If the same ad appears on multiple pages at the same time, this statistic may not correctly calculate the number of impressions, due to caching.

Archive
A backup copy of data designed to be kept long term often for security and/or audit processes.

Automated Clearing House
An ACH transaction is an electronic fund transfer through the Federal Reserve Bank from a checking or savings account.

Authentication
To prove identity. To provide authentication via a password or some combination of tokens, biometrics, and passwords. Authentication over a network involves the use of digital signatures using the signing private key stored in your digital ID.

Authorization
The process of checking the validity and available balance of a customer's credit card before the transaction is accepted and cleared for payment. The act of granting approval.

Backend System
The application system that runs the operation of the store and related accounting systems.

Bandwidth
The electronic equivalent to the size of the pipe needed to move data from one point to the next. The amount of available bandwidth dictates the amount of information (pages, text, graphics, video, sound, etc.) that can be downloaded through a connection. iPlan can manage a client's site based on the amount of data transfer capacity used per month.

Banner Ad
An interactive electronic ad placed on a site that is linked to an external advertiser's site or another internal page within the same site.

Browser
Short for web browser, it's the client application tool that allows users to 'surf the web'. The original browser was Mosaic and the most popular web browsers today are Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

"Card Not Present" Merchant Account
An account that allows merchants to process credit cards without a face to face transaction with the purchaser.

CARU
Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, established in 1974 by the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) to promote responsible children’s advertising and to respond to public concerns.

Certificate
A certificate is a secure electronic identity conforming to the X.509 standard. Certificates typically contain a user's name and public key.

Certification Authority (CA)
A third party that verifies the identity of merchants and their sites. The certificate authority issues a certificate (also called a digital certificate or an authentication certificate) to an applicant company, which can then put the certificate up on its site.

Client
An application running as a desktop agent that receives information from a server application.

CPM
CPM is the cost per thousand impressions for a specific site. For example, an e-commerce site that charges $15,000 per banner and guarantees 600,000 impressions has a CPM of $25 ($15,000 divided by 600).

Cross-certification
The process by which two CAs certify each other's trustworthiness. Cross-certification initiates PKI networking. With PKI networking, users managed by both CAs can securely communicate with each other.

Cross Promotion
The promotion of a website through other traditional forms of advertising such as magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, billboards, etc.

Database
A collection of data organized and designed for ease-of-access. For example, a collection of customer names and addresses would form the content of a database.

Decrypt
To decrypt a protected file is to restore it to its original, unprotected state.

Delayed Settlement Processing
Once a transaction has been authorized, the merchant must ship the hard goods before a transaction can be settled. Delayed settlements are stored online until the merchant selects the transactions for settlement.

Digital Certificate
A Digital Certificate issued by a Certificate Authority certifies that a merchant and a particular site are connected.  A digital certificate verifies to the online shopper that the e-commerce site is associated with a physical address and phone number which can increase the shoppers confidence in the authenticity of the merchant.

Digital ID
An encrypted repository containing security data that belongs to your user identity. A digital ID includes a user's private keys. Access to your digital ID requires authentication via some combination of tokens, biometrics and passwords.

Directory networking
Support for any LDAP-compliant directory ensures that directories can be networked to allow for the retrieval of user certificates, cross-certificates and revocation information.

Digital signature
A digital signature is like a paper signature, except that it is fully electronic. A digital signature is impossible to forge, making it more secure than a paper signature. A digital signature provides a guarantee to a recipient that the signed file came from the person who sent it, and that it was not altered since it was signed.

Direct Marketing Association - DMA
The DMA has developed guidelines and programs to meet consumer privacy expectations through notice of its information practices to consumers and by offering consumers the ability to remove their names from marketing lists.

Directory
A directory is a software program that stores information in fields and records. A directory can also keep lists of digital certificates that have been revoked because they are no longer trusted.

Distribution Channel
The method through which a product is sold, including retailers, catalogers, Internet sites, e-commerce sites, etc.

Domain Name
The unique name or plain-english URL (Universal Resource Locator) of an Internet site. iplaninc.com is a domain name.

Download
The transfer of information from the Internet to your computer.

Drop Ship
The shipping of a product directly from the manufacturer to the customer without requiring inventory carrying by the retailer.

Dual key pairs
A combination of the user's encryption and signing key pairs. Two key pairs are required to satisfy the requirements for non-repudiation and key backup and recovery.