Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
Address privacy concerns with serviceEndpoints.
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
This PR adds additional details to address issue #16. It's intention is to further guide developers with non-normative statements about how serviceEndpoints should work so that they don't create privacy concerns.

Co-authored-by: Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>
  • Loading branch information
kdenhartog and msporny authored Apr 10, 2020
1 parent d5aee3a commit 008bee0
Showing 1 changed file with 26 additions and 17 deletions.
43 changes: 26 additions & 17 deletions index.html
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -1751,12 +1751,13 @@ <h2>Service Endpoints</h2>
communicating with the <a>DID subject</a> or associated entities. Services
listed in the <a>DID document</a> can contain information about privacy
preserving messaging services, or more public information, such as social media
accounts, personal websites, and email addresses. The metadata associated with
services are often service-specific. For example, the metadata associated with
an encrypted messaging service can express how to initiate the encrypted link
before messaging begins.
</p>

accounts, personal websites, and email addresses although this is discouraged.
See <a href="#keep-personally-identifiable-information-pii-private"></a> for
additional details. The metadata associated with services are often
service-specific. For example, the metadata associated with an encrypted
messaging service can express how to initiate the encrypted link before
messaging begins.
</p>
<p>
Pointers to services are expressed using the <code>service</code> property.
Each service has its own <code>id</code> and <code>type</code>, as well as a
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -2972,17 +2973,25 @@ <h2>
</h2>

<p>
If a <a>DID method</a> specification is written for a public <a>DID registry</a>
where all <a>DIDs</a> and <a>DID documents</a> are publicly available, it is
<em>critical</em> that <a>DID documents</a> contain no PII. All PII should be
kept behind <a>service endpoints</a> under the control of the
<a>DID subject</a>. With this privacy architecture, PII can be exchanged on a
private, peer-to-peer basis using communications channels identified and secured
by <a>public key descriptions</a> in <a>DID documents</a>. This also enables
<a>DID subjects</a> and relying parties to implement the
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation">GDPR</a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten">right to be forgotten</a>,
because no PII is written to an immutable <a>distributed ledger</a>.
If a <a>DID method</a> specification is written for a public <a>DID
registry</a> where all <a>DIDs</a> and <a>DID documents</a> are publicly
available, it is <em>critical</em> that <a>DID documents</a> contain no
personal data. All personal data should be kept behind <a>service
endpoints</a> under the control of the <a>DID subject</a>. Additional due
diligence should be taken around the use of URLs in service endpoints as well
to prevent leakage of unintentional personal data or correlation within a URL
of a service endpoint. For example, a URL that contains a username is likely
dangerous to include in a <a>DID Document</a> because the username is likely
to be human-meaningful in a way that can unintentionally reveal information
that the <a>DID subject</a> did not consent to sharing. With this privacy
architecture, personal data can be exchanged on a private, peer-to-peer basis
using communications channels identified and secured by <a>public key
descriptions</a> in <a>DID documents</a>. This also enables <a>DID
subjects</a> and relying parties to implement the <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation">GDPR</a> <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten">right to be
forgotten</a>, because no personal data is written to an immutable
<a>distributed ledger</a>.
</p>
</section>

Expand Down

0 comments on commit 008bee0

Please sign in to comment.