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This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
This First Public Working Draft represents the early consensus of the group on what identifiable permissions should look like and they encompass. The group is now looking for feedback on this approach, and its applicability to various use cases, including widgets configurations, installable Web applications, existing permissions verifications.
This document was published by the Device APIs and Policy Working Group as a Working Draft. This document is intended to become a W3C Recommendation. If you wish to make comments regarding this document, please send them to public-device-apis@w3.org (subscribe, archives). All feedback is welcome.
Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; 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) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
A number of Web APIs, in particular those used to access private or sensitive data from the hosting device, are meant to be discoverable, as well as disabled or enabled on a site-by-site or application-by-application basis, depending on the security context.
For instance, the feature element as defined in the Widget Packaging and Configuration specification [WIDGETS] allows a widget runtime engine to grant access only to the specific APIs that the configuration file of the widget listed.
This document identifies and names the various permissions that are attached to existing Web APIs.
Each permission described in this document is identified using a string specified in this document.
Where these permissions needed to be identified as a URI (e.g. in a widget configuration file [WIDGETS]), a URI can be built from these strings by
appending that string to the base
http://www.w3.org/ns/api-perms/.
The DAP base URI is entirely tentative at this stage.
The geolocation identifier corresponds to the
access to both or either of the Geolocation::getCurrentPosition
and Geolocation::watchPosition
methods defined in the Geolocation API [GEOLOCATION-API].
In the Web browser environment, this permission is usually granted through explicit user’s consent, and is retained for later access in the same session.
The contacts.read identifier corresponds to the access to the Contacts::find method defined in the Contacts API [CONTACTS-API].
In the Web browser environment, this permission is usually granted implicitly by asking the user to select what data of which contacts should be shared, for each call to the said method.
The mediacapture identifier corresponds to the access to the Capture::captureImage, Capture::captureVideo and Capture::captureAudio methods defined in Media Capture API [MEDIACAPTURE-API].
In the Web browser environment, this permission is usually granted implicitly by asking the user to activate a button to start and stop the recording operations, for each call to the said methods.
The file.read identifier corresponds to
the access to the FileReader::readAsArrayBuffer,
FileReader::readAsBinaryString,
FileReader::readAsText and FileReader::readAsDataURL methods defined in the File API [FILE-API].
In the Web browser environment, this permission is usually granted implicitly once the File object has been created, after the user has selected a file from a file picker, and is retained for later access in the same browsing context.
The file.write identifier corresponds to
the access to
the FileWriter::write, FileWriter::truncate, FileWriterSync::write
and FileWriterSync::truncate
methods defined in the File Writer API [FILE-WRITER].
In the Web browser environment, this permission is usually granted implicitly once the FileSaver object has been created, after the user has selected a path to which the data can be saved (e.g. through a “Save As” dialog).
The deviceinfo identifier corresponds to the access to the data of the Power, CPU, Thermal, AVCodecs, Storage, OutputDevices, InputDevices properties available through the SystemInfo::get and SystemInfo::watch methods defined in the System Information API [SYSINFOAPI].
The networkinfo identifier corresponds to the access to the data of the Network property available through the SystemInfo::get and SystemInfo::watch methods defined in the System Information API [SYSINFOAPI].
The sensorinfo identifier corresponds to the access to the data of the AmbientLight, AmbientNoise, AmbientTemperature, AmbientAtmosphericPressure and Proximity properties available through the SystemInfo::get and SystemInfo::watch methods defined in the System Information API [SYSINFOAPI].
In the Web browser environment, these permissions are usually granted through explicit user’s consent, and are retained for later access in the same session.
This section maps the permissions defined in this document to BONDI 1.11 feature strings [BONDI-FEATURES1-11] and corresponding Android permissions.
BONDI 1.11 feature URIs are formed by appending the BONDI
string to the base URI: http://bondi.omtp.org/api/1.1/.
BONDI and Android values are only given as examples.
Note also that this section might contain errors. BONDI and Android meanings may not correspond as shown and even if the names are similar they may not be equivalent.
| W3C API permissions | BONDI 1.11 Feature | Android Permissions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifier | Scope | Identifier | Scope | |
geolocation |
geolocation.position
|
Detection of the user’s position |
android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
|
access coarse (e.g., Cell-ID, WiFi) location |
android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
|
access fine (e.g., GPS) location | |||
| W3C API permissions | BONDI 1.11 Feature | Android Permissions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifier | Scope | Identifier | Scope | |
contacts.read |
pim.contacts.read
|
Read the contacts stored in the terminal |
android.permission.READ_CONTACTS
|
read the user's contacts data. |
| W3C API permissions | BONDI 1.11 Feature | Android Permissions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifier | Scope | Identifier | Scope | |
mediacapture |
camera.capture
|
capturing a picture from a selected camera |
android.permission.CAMERA
|
access the camera device |
camera.record
|
capturing a video from a selected camera | |||
android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO |
Allows an application to record audio | |||
BONDI 1.1 has a separate permission for detecting available cameras, camera.access.
| W3C API permissions | BONDI 1.11 Feature | Android Permissions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifier | Scope | Identifier | Scope | |
file.read |
filesystem.read |
Read access to a filesystem | android.permission.READ_OWNER_DATA |
Allows an application to read the owner's data. |
file.write |
filesystem.write |
Write access to a filesystem | android.permission.WRITE_OWNER_DATA |
Allows an application to write (but not read) the owner's data.g |
| W3C API permissions | BONDI 1.11 Feature | Android Permissions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifier | Scope | Identifier | Scope | |
deviceinfo |
pim.devicestatus |
Access to the device status module |
android.permission.BATTERY_STATS
|
collect battery statistics |
networkinfo |
N/A |
android.permission.NETWORK_STATE
|
Allows applications to access information about networks | |
sensorinfo |
N/A | N/A | ||