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Add more privacy details around when beacons can be sent #55

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Add more privacy details around when beacons can be sent #55

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feb3cf9
Add more privacy details around when beacons can be sent
mingyc Nov 15, 2022
b0cb8d5
Clarify sending behavior on navigating away
mingyc Nov 28, 2022
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23 changes: 17 additions & 6 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -307,14 +307,22 @@ However, it may break existing means that users have of blocking beaconing -
since the browser itself sends beacons **behind the scenes** (so to speak),
special support may be needed to allow extension authors to block the sending (or registering) of beacons.

Specifically, beacons will have the following privacy requirements:
Specifically, pending beacons will have the following privacy requirements:

* Follow third-party cookie rules for beacons.
* Post-unload beacons are not sent if background sync is disabled for a site.
* [#30] Beacons must not leak navigation history to the network provider that it should not know.
* If network changes after a page is navigated away, i.e. put into bfcache, the beacon should not be sent through the new network;
If the page is then restored from bfcache, the beacon can be sent.
* If this is difficult to achieve, consider just force sending out all beacons on navigating away.
* The timing when the beacons can be sent must be taken care of:
* Before navigating away (or document being fully unloaded), beacons are **sendable**.
* [On navigating away][navigating-away], all beacons are **sendable** no matter what other states the browser has, (e.g. BackgroundSync is on or off).
* If beacons don't meet the **sendable** requirement after navigating away (see below), consider sending all of them out earlier at this moment if handling them later is difficult, such that they won't be dropped silently.
* [After navigating away][navigating-away] (or document discarded or bfcached):
* If [BackgroundSync] is on
* beacons are **sendable** over the same network as the one before navigating away.
* If [BackgroundSync] is off:
* Beacons are **sendable** if there is another open document (tab/frame/etc) with [the same storage partitioning key][StorageKey] as the current document's one.
* [#30] Beacons are **sendable** over the same network as the one before navigating away.
* Beacons are **non-sendable** if none of the above conditions is met. **non-sendable** beacons might be delayed until navigating back, or might be forced sending earlier on navigating away.
* Beacons can change from **sendable** to **non-sendable**. In this case, beacons can only be delayed or be silently dropped.
* If this is difficult to achieve, consider just force sending out all beacons on navigating away.
* [#27] Beacons must be sent over HTTPS.
* [#34]\[TBD\] Crash Recovery related (if implemented):
* Delete pending beacons for a site if a user clears site data.
Expand All @@ -329,6 +337,9 @@ Specifically, beacons will have the following privacy requirements:
[#30]: https://github.com/WICG/pending-beacon/issues/30
[#34]: https://github.com/WICG/pending-beacon/issues/34
[bfcache]: https://web.dev/bfcache/
[BackgroundSync]: https://github.com/WICG/pending-beacon/issues/3#issuecomment-1284164794
[StorageKey]: https://github.com/WICG/pending-beacon/issues/3#issuecomment-1286031505
[navigating-away]: https://github.com/WICG/pending-beacon/issues/3#issuecomment-1286397825

## Security Considerations

Expand Down