W3C P3PTechnology and Society Domain

P3P 1.1 Specification Working Group Charter


Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Mission Statement
  3. Scope
  4. Duration
  5. Deliverables
  6. Relationship with Other Activities
  7. WG Membership
  8. Meetings
  9. Group Home Page
  10. Intellectual Property
  11. Confidentiality
  12. W3C Team Involvement

Introduction

The P3P 1.1 Specification Working has finalized and issued a Last Call Specification of the P3P 1.1 Working Draft. The Last Call comments are solicited until 31 March 2006. The P3P 1.1 Specification introduces a mechanism to address Web services, the JURISDICTION element as required by the European Commission to address transborder data flow, guidelines and requirements for P3P user agents and a variety fixes and features as a reaction of implementation experience. The value of the new P3P generic attribute for Web Services was demonstrated in a Team-Note on how to address privacy in Web Services. The detail of the changes can be found in the latest P3P 1.1 Specification. The user agent guidelines are again cutting edge developments on the display and handling of privacy policies to unify the user experience. The importance of such guidelines is underlined by the user interface issues revealed by phishing.

All the changes mentioned above were enthusiastically welcomed during the start of P3P 1.1 works. P3P 1.1 is leading edge on addressing the privacy issues in Web Services scenarios as well as in Mobile or GRID environments. Due to the change in the privacy landscape after the events of 11 September 2001, especially within 2005 and the development of a version of the P3P 1.1 Base Data Schema expressed in XML Schema -but still be interoperable with P3P 1.0 clients- the support from the P3P Community was fading out. P3P was still ahead of its time as the immediate benefit of having the P3P base data schema expressed in XML Schema was not immediately clear. But it is very important for the future of privacy on the Web as most leading edge technologies are using the P3P base data schema as a basic world wide agreed privacy ontology. With XML Schema, exensions, importing into new technologies etc will all be much easier than dealing with the old P3P-specific format. There is still enough momentum to carry on until Candidate Recommendation. This charter extends the previous (outdated) charter to allow the P3P 1.1 Specification Working Group to answer the Last Call comments, make adjustments to the existing Specification and prepare the move to Candidate Recommendation. This will allow the privacy community to take advantage of the improvements and rely on a rather stable specification.

If the support for P3P 1.1 development remains at a low level, the P3P Specification Working Group will leave the P3P 1.1 Specification in Candidate Recommendation. If there is sufficient support from implementers, re-chartering is expected to carry on to P3P 1.1 Recommendation.

Mission Statement

The P3P 1.1 Specification Working Group was chartered primarily to develop a P3P 1.1 Recommendation, support and maintain the P3P 1.0 Recommendation, help with dependencies to P3P and publish Notes related to P3P. It is the only remaining group of the Privacy Activity. The P3P 1.1 Specification Working Group will address Last Call comments of the current Last Call Specification and prepare the necessary steps to move the P3P 1.1 Specification to Candidate Recommendation.

The continuation of the work on privacy on the Web falls within the Technology and Society Domain.

Scope

Duration

The P3P 1.1 Specification Working Group will be chartered until July 2006. If there is sufficient momentum to carry the Specification to Recommendation, a rechartering is expected.

Deliverables

Documents and minutes will be available from the WG public page WG page.

In order to meet the goal of delivering a P3P 1.1 Specification Recommendation within the time frame of this charter, the following milestones are expected to be met:

Relationship with Other Activities

P3P is dependent on the following W3C technologies and IETF technologies: XML, XML Namespaces, XML Schema, HTML, and HTTP. P3P is also related to the XML Protocol Activity, CC/PP, and mobile web work. XForms, Web Services and VoiceXML should have to address Privacy in their work. The Group expects to deliver a Note on the use of P3P in the context of the Semantic Web.

For Web Services, a Team-Note explained the use of the new generic P3P XML attribute in the context of Web Services to make a Web service privacy aware. The note on P3P and the Semantic Web is still in Draft status and might be further developed.

WG membership

The level of participation expected of P3P Specification WG members requires that they become experts in P3P; and that they meet the minimum level of participation specified in the W3C Process Document. In addition, WG members are expected to volunteer for assignments such as following up on public comments; creating examples, guidelines, or test cases; participating in or chairing a task force; and taking minutes at working group meetings. All working group members are expected to review working group minutes and drafts and actively participate in working group discussions. Participation is expected to consume one half day per week of each WG member's time.

To become a member of the P3P Specification Working Group, a representative of a W3C Member organization must be nominated by their Advisory Committee Representative (please send email to the Working Group chair and the W3C Team Contact). The nomination must include explicit agreement to this charter, including its goals, an IPR disclosure and the level of effort required of the representative. Membership is also open to invited experts from the community, selected by the chair in order to balance the technical experience of the group. The chair may also appoint non-voting task force members who agree to participate in a specific task force without making a commitment to full Working Group participation.

In order to maintain good standing status, WG members must consistently participate in two out of three working group meetings (both remote and face-to-face), take on working group assignments, and complete working group assignments in a timely fashion. These criteria may be relaxed at the discretion of the WG Chair and Team Contact for WG members who are contributing to the success of the working group but are frequently unable to participate in meetings due to funding, scheduling, or language issues.

Meetings

The full P3P Specification working group is expected to hold regular conference calls and possibly one face-to-face meeting. An up-to-date schedule is kept on the P3P Specification WG homepage at http://www.w3.org/P3P/1.1/

Minutes of WG meetings shall be reported as required by the Process Document. Minutes are required only to show members present, the results of formal votes, and significant action items; further information may be included at the discretion of the working group chair.

Group Home Page

The P3P Specification WG has a home page that records the history of the group, provides access to the archives, meeting minutes, updated schedule of deliverables, membership list, and relevant documents and resources. It is maintained by the working group chair in collaboration with the W3C staff contact.

Intellectual Property

This Working Group operates under the 24 January 2002 CPP as amended by the W3C Patent Policy Transition Procedure. The Working Group maintains a public list of patent disclosures made in connection with this document; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) with respect to this specification must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

If there is momentum in Candidate Recommendation to re-charter the P3P Specification Working Group to bring P3P 1.1 to Recommendation, the Group is expected to re-charter under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy.

Confidentiality

The work of the P3P Specification WG is generally covered by the usual W3C member confidentiality agreement. However, the WG charter, mailing list archive, and draft documents will be available to the public. A separate mailing list and web page may be established for W3C member-confidential communications and administrative announcements and resources (dial-in numbers for teleconference, meeting logistics, W3C process discussions, etc.).

W3C Team Involvement

The W3C Team expects to dedicate the services of one staff member to serve 20% of his time as staff contact for the P3P activity. In addition, the W3C Team will dedicate 10% of the time of one staff member to serve as editor of the P3P Specification document.