The 'acct' URI Scheme
RFC 7565

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                    P. Saint-Andre
Request for Comments: 7565                                      May 2015
Category: Standards Track
ISSN: 2070-1721

                         The 'acct' URI Scheme

Abstract

   This document defines the 'acct' Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
   scheme as a way to identify a user's account at a service provider,
   irrespective of the particular protocols that can be used to interact
   with the account.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7565.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Saint-Andre                  Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 7565                  The 'acct' URI Scheme                 May 2015

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
   2. Terminology .....................................................2
   3. Rationale .......................................................2
   4. Definition ......................................................3
   5. Security Considerations .........................................4
   6. Internationalization Considerations .............................5
   7. IANA Considerations .............................................5
   8. References ......................................................6
      8.1. Normative References .......................................6
      8.2. Informative References .....................................7
   Acknowledgements ...................................................8
   Author's Address ...................................................8

1.  Introduction

   Existing Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes that enable
   interaction with, or that identify resources associated with, a
   user's account at a service provider are tied to particular services
   or application protocols.  Two examples are the 'mailto' scheme
   (which enables interaction with a user's email account) and the
   'http' scheme (which enables retrieval of web files controlled by a
   user or interaction with interfaces providing information about a
   user).  However, there exists no URI scheme that generically
   identifies a user's account at a service provider without specifying
   a particular protocol to use when interacting with the account.  This
   specification fills that gap.

2.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   [RFC2119].

3.  Rationale

   During formalization of the WebFinger protocol [RFC7033], much
   discussion occurred regarding the appropriate URI scheme to include
   when specifying a user's account as a web link [RFC5988].  Although
   both the 'mailto' [RFC6068] and 'http' [RFC7230] schemes were
   proposed, not all service providers offer email services or web
   interfaces on behalf of user accounts (e.g., a microblogging or
   instant messaging provider might not offer email services, or an
   enterprise might not offer HTTP interfaces to information about its
   employees).  Therefore, the participants in the discussion recognized
   that it would be helpful to define a URI scheme that could be used to

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RFC 7565                  The 'acct' URI Scheme                 May 2015

   generically identify a user's account at a service provider,
   irrespective of the particular application protocols used to interact
   with the account.  The result was the 'acct' URI scheme defined in
   this document.

   (Note that a user is not necessarily a human; it could be an
   automated application such as a bot, a role-based alias, etc.