Re: IETF Problem Statement on Elision and Discussion on Privacy & Human Rights

Christopher is clearly among the most sophisticated and respected experts
on technology and human rights.

However, elision and similar approaches to consent, although
well-intentioned are not, in my opinion, the thing to focus on because they
increase the burden on the individual without clearly presenting a path to
easing the burden.

People are already overwhelmed by choices they don’t fully understand and
so they are abused by passive-aggressive cookie choices, inscrutable
privacy policies and proprietary consent intermediaries like Facebook and
data brokers.

To reverse this anti-pattern, we need to deal with the asymmetry of power
between individuals and technology providers as personal data resource
servers.

To deal with institutional power asymmetry people organize as cooperatives,
unions, congregations, and professions. These communities are able to
advise and to act as agents and fiduciaries to intentionally deal with
powerful corporations and institutions.

Standards for digital agency are essential to bringing the power of
community through delegated authorization while avoiding yet another vendor
lock-in opportunity. Elision, identity, and policy standards are also
important but they need to be addressed in the context of delegated
authorization if we’re to deal with asymmetric power.

At IETF 119 there will be a very brief HotRFC to continue the process
leading to chartering a Personal Digital Agent Protocol workgroup
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/pdap
<pdap@ietf.org>. There is also a human rights thread for 119attendees
https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/119attendees/4CSf6Z7B18b9DbYXCg1GGGjZajk/


Adrian

On Thu, Mar 14, 2024 at 07:15 Christopher Allen <
ChristopherA@lifewithalacrity.com> wrote:

> This Monday morning in Brisbane, Australia (8.30am on Monday 3/18 in
> Brisbane, but 10.30pm on Sunday 3/17 in UTC), Blockchain Commons will be
> speaking at IETF 119's ALLDISPATCH on some of the privacy and humans rights
> consideration that went into the design of Gordian Envelope.
>
> The IETF has some interesting contradictions in old RFCs (6973 & 8280)
> that they wrote on privacy and human rights considerations, but beyond that
> their RFCs have become out-of-date and largely they haven't been used in
> IETF standards as requirements since their release.
>
> We need better and more concrete standards to better support privacy and
> human rights. Specific to support the data minimization goals of these
> RFCs, we've been focusing on deterministic hashed data elision, which
> allows any data holder to remove some of the content while still
> maintaining full data integrity and authenticity.
>
> We think Gordian Envelope is a good implementation of deterministic hashed
> data elision, and it's one that's neither too traditional nor too
> revolutionary. It walks the middle path that's actually required to ensure
> that privacy advancements happen. We think it's a better solution than the
> salted list of SD-CWT or much newer and more complex technologies such as
> BBS and other Zero-Knowledge Proofs.
>
> But our real goal is not specifically our working proof-of-concept — it is
> to ensure that data minimization will be "required", and not just a
> "consideration". And beyond that, that the other privacy and human rights
> goals that RFCs 6973 & 8280 aspire to, are updated to have concrete
> requirements and mandatory features for future standards to conform to.
>
> If you're attending IETF 119, please consider joining us at the
> ALLDISPATCH meeting, 8.30-11.30am 3/18 Brisbane time (Sunday evening for
> most of the rest of the world). We are in the sixth slot, which means that
> we are most likely to start sometime between 9.45 and 10.15am , depending
> on how things are running.
>
> We'd appreciate your support for privacy and for human rights.
>
> Some Links:
> * Our I-D on the Problem:
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-appelcline-hashed-elision/
> * Our ALLDISPATCH Presentation:
> https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/Gordian-Developer-Community/tree/master/meetings/2024/03-18
> * Envelope Overview: https://developer.blockchaincommons.com/envelope/
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> -- Christopher Allen
>