Subject: Re: [ietf-privacy] ITU-T Privacy & IdM Terminology

From: Lucy Lynch <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:18:41 -0700 (PDT)

On Wed, 16 Mar 2011, Tschofenig, Hannes (NSN - FI/Espoo) wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I also had a discussion with Igor on the Oauth mailing list last year
> regarding the terminology document. He pointed me to some work currently
> ongoing in the ITU-T on terminology.
> 
> The mailing list thread can be found here:
> http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/oauth/current/msg04170.html
> 
> As you can see in the mailing list thread Igor pointed me to the
> following documents:
> 
> Recommendation X.1252 (IdM terms) and Y 2720 (NGN identity management
> framework)
> http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/publications/Pages/recs.aspx.

The scope of this document is clearly broader than privacy, but this is a 
substantial piece of work. The author(s) tracked many of the early efforts 
related to identity management and gathered terms from multiple sources.

Great starting point: http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-X.1252-201004-I

- Lucy

> Tony mentioned ongoing ISO work in the area of terminology as well.
> 
> The original version of the privacy terminology document that Marit and
> Andreas compiled actually discuss the relationship of the terms to ISO
> work. See http://dud.inf.tu-dresden.de/Anon_Terminology.shtml
> 
> Ciao
> Hannes
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> ietf-privacy mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-privacy
>

---

From: Hannes Tschofenig <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:27:25 +0200

Hi Lucy, 

That you for the feedback.

What specifically does this mean in context of the work we are doing on the
draft-hansen-privacy-terminology-02?

Ciao
Hannes

---

From: Lucy Lynch <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:22:01 -0700 (PDT)

> That you for the feedback.

wasn't feedback really, just a pointer to the document you mentioned.

> draft-hansen-privacy-terminology-02?

I think both of the documents represent communities with similar interests 
trying to get to a distilled enough definition of any given term so that 
that term can be used in technical discussions with a common 
understanding. The ITU approach has been to cull terms from specifications 
in many venues (OASIS, Liberty, ISO, IETF, open source communities, etc.) 
and try to harmonize the definitions. Their interest is identity 
management and privacy is just one of their considerations.

draft-hansen-privacy-terminology-02 has taken the original 00 draft text 
and refined the definitions of key privacy related elements and is also 
moving toward a more general understanding of the individual terms. 
Enabling/protecting privacy is the primary focus and identity management 
is just one of the considerations in this context.

Both efforts help with getting to a common set of usable terms, which is a 
good thing. I think the material in draft-hansen-privacy-terminology-02 is 
a richer discussion of the privacy material, and it covers some things 
that the ITU document misses.

A side by side comparison of the documents shows that there are some areas 
where shared terms are used in slightly different ways. Knowing where 
there is shared understanding, and where there is divergence is always 
helpful. I would hope that a better understanding of privacy would 
actually improve identity management solutions in the long run.

- Lucy