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Write initial privacy considerations for unnecessary use#262

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johannhof merged 20 commits into
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johannhof:privacy-considerations-unnecessary-use
Jun 26, 2025
Merged

Write initial privacy considerations for unnecessary use#262
johannhof merged 20 commits into
w3c-fedid:mainfrom
johannhof:privacy-considerations-unnecessary-use

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@johannhof

@johannhof johannhof commented Jun 11, 2025

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@npdoty there are some things here that strongly touch on ethical considerations which I think you'd probably be able to say much more detailed and eloquently than I can, so I'm happy to get your thoughts and potential contributions (maybe as a follow-up). But I hope this is a solid start that captures the main issues and, where possible, mitigations.


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I wasn't sure of how much of this we wanted in our spec vs. other docs like credential-considerations. But if the WG agreed we should go into this level of details here (even though DC API is just one small piece of the larger picture) then I think this is a great start and I'm supportive of adding it to the spec.

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Small changes in quest for better clarity

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Small changes in quest for better clarity

Thanks for proofreading!

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I wasn't sure of how much of this we wanted in our spec vs. other docs like credential-considerations. But if the WG agreed we should go into this level of details here (even though DC API is just one small piece of the larger picture) then I think this is a great start and I'm supportive of adding it to the spec.

To be clear there was no explicit discussion which could signal consensus but #243 has been unchallenged for some time and I believe that it is an important question for the DC API, even though many of these things would have to be addressed at a larger societal level.

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</li>
<li>User agents are responsible for protecting their users against
dangerous content and permission requests on the Web and could
intervene on their behalf, proactively rejecting requests.

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Yes, which is why we required the requests not be encrypted by design/from the start. We should say that we do this on purpose (i.e., the browser is not a "dumb pipe" here).

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I do mention this in other places. I feel like this is more of a high-level overview of the different actors and maybe not the place to get into design decisions?

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I don't agree. It's a design consideration that some are willing to violate.

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Ok, I don't feel strongly about this - I'm happy to note that it's supported by the API design.

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with purpose attestations. Wallets might be expected to enforce these
restrictions.
</li>
<li>The ultimate decision of whether or not to share their personal

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We should again say, "by design" ... the spec requires a UI to be presented (or it will... that will be a MUST).

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I can mention that.

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johannhof and others added 16 commits June 25, 2025 20:27
Co-authored-by: Ted Thibodeau Jr <tthibodeau@openlinksw.com>
Co-authored-by: Marcos Cáceres <marcos@marcosc.com>
Co-authored-by: Marcos Cáceres <marcos@marcosc.com>
Co-authored-by: Kyle Den Hartog <kdenhartog@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Marcos Cáceres <marcos@marcosc.com>
Co-authored-by: Marcos Cáceres <marcos@marcosc.com>
@johannhof johannhof force-pushed the privacy-considerations-unnecessary-use branch from f553c3e to 57870a9 Compare June 25, 2025 20:28
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@marcoscaceres PR is rebased and (hopefully) ready for another review

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LGTM

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</li>
<li>The ultimate decision of whether or not to share their personal
information lies with the user, which is why the API requires the
user agent to present a credential picker to the user, and other

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In most cases, the client device (another reason why having that term in the spec as a logical construct is really important) presents the credential selector, not the user agent.

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I guess my initial phrasing here was that the user agents shows a permission prompt, which @marcoscaceres changed to "credential picker". I would prefer not to bikeshed on this too much personally, this is important to get right in normative text but here I think we all know what's being expressed.

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Let's follow up on the wording (client vs user agent, permission prompt vs. credential picker) in a new PR once the terminology discussion concludes.

johannhof and others added 3 commits June 25, 2025 21:09
Co-authored-by: Tim Cappalli <tim@cappalli.me>
Co-authored-by: Tim Cappalli <tim@cappalli.me>
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I believe we resolved all the issues - leaving the ones unresolved where I feel like there could be a chance someone might want a follow-up, but overall I don't think any of them block us from merging this.

Thank you all for the constructive review!

@johannhof johannhof merged commit 90fcf9d into w3c-fedid:main Jun 26, 2025
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@johannhof johannhof deleted the privacy-considerations-unnecessary-use branch June 26, 2025 01:18
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10 participants