A Presence-based GEOPRIV Location Object Format
RFC 4119

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Network Working Group                                        J. Peterson
Request for Comments: 4119                                       NeuStar
Category: Standards Track                                  December 2005

            A Presence-based GEOPRIV Location Object Format

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

Abstract

   This document describes an object format for carrying geographical
   information on the Internet.  This location object extends the
   Presence Information Data Format (PIDF), which was designed for
   communicating privacy-sensitive presence information and which has
   similar properties.

Peterson                    Standards Track                     [Page 1]
RFC 4119                GEOPRIV Location Object            December 2005

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. Conventions Used in This Document ..........................3
   2. Location Object Format ..........................................4
      2.1. Baseline PIDF Usage ........................................4
      2.2. Extensions to PIDF for Location and Usage Rules ............5
           2.2.1. 'location-info' Element .............................5
           2.2.2. 'usage-rules' Element ...............................7
           2.2.3. 'method' Element ....................................9
           2.2.4. 'provided-by' Element ...............................9
           2.2.5. Schema Definitions .................................10
      2.3. Example Location Objects ..................................14
   3. Carrying PIDF in a Using Protocol ..............................15
   4. Securing PIDF ..................................................15
   5. Security Considerations ........................................17
   6. IANA Considerations ............................................17
      6.1. 'method' Tokens ...........................................17
      6.2. 'provided-by' Elements ....................................18
      6.3. URN Sub-Namespace Registration for
           urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:pidf:geopriv10 .....................18
   7. Acknowledgements ...............................................19
   A. Appendix: NENA Provided-by Schema ..............................20
      A.1. dataProvider XML Schema ...................................21
   Normative References ..............................................22
   Informative References ............................................22

1.  Introduction

   Geographical location information describes a physical position in
   the world that may correspond to the past, present, or future
   location of a person, event, or device.  Numerous applications used
   in the Internet today benefit from sharing location information
   (including mapping/navigation applications, 'friend finders' on cell
   phones, and so on).  However, such applications may disclose the
   whereabouts of a person in a manner contrary to the user's
   preferences.  Privacy lapses may result from poor protocol security
   (which permits eavesdroppers to capture location information),
   inability to articulate or accommodate user preferences, or similar
   defects common in existing systems.  The privacy concerns surrounding
   the unwanted disclosure of a person's physical location are among the
   more serious issues that confront users on the Internet.

   Consequently, a need has been identified to convey geographical
   location information within an object that includes a user's privacy
   and disclosure preferences and which is protected by strong
   cryptographic security.  Previous work [13] has observed that this
   problem bears some resemblance to the general problem of

Peterson                    Standards Track                     [Page 2]
RFC 4119                GEOPRIV Location Object            December 2005

   communicating and securing presence information on the Internet.
   Presence (defined in [12]) provides a real-time communications
   disposition for a user, and thus has similar requirements for
   selective distribution and security.

   Therefore, this document extends the XML-based Presence Information
   Data Format (PIDF [2]) to allow the encapsulation of location
   information within a presence document.

   This document does not invent any format for location information
   itself.  Numerous existing formats based on civic location,
   geographic coordinates, and the like, have been developed in other
   standards fora.  Instead, this document defines an object that is