absence of policy ref in well-known location

The P3P Specification working group has been
discussing what P3P user agents should do in
the case that they do not find a P3P policy
ref at the well-known location (or anywhere else).
The consensus is:

If no policy reference file is available for a given site, 
user agents MUST assume (an empty) policy reference file 
exists at the well-known location with a 24 hour expiry, 
and therefore if the user returns to the site after 24 hours, the
user agent MUST attempt to fetch a policy reference
file from the well-known location again.

User agents MAY check the well-known location
more frequently, or upon a certain event such
as the user clicking a browser refresh button.

Sites MAY place a policy reference
file at the well-known location that indicates that
no policy is available, but set the expiry such that
user agents know they need not check every 24
hours.

We don't expect this to cause any problems
for implementers, but would like to hear back
from you if you have any comments about this.
Please try to respond by February 5.

Lorrie Cranor
P3P Specification Working Group Chair

Received on Monday, 29 January 2001 10:59:07 UTC