Re: Request-Off-The-Record Mode header

[Shivan Kaul Sahib <[e-mail]>]

Hey Caleb,

On Thu, 8 Jun 2023 at 14:58, Caleb Queern <[e-mail]> wrote:

> This feels very similar to what <ahem> some have said about the
> Clear-Site-Data header both in its utility and risks.
>

I think one big difference between Off-The-Record and Clear-Site-Data is
that Off-The-Record is preventative, while Clear-Site-Data is sent after
the fact. Also, in the case of Clear-Site-Data, the website specifies
what to clear, while with Off-The-Record the website leaves it up to the
user agent.

>
> On Thu, Jun 8, 2023 at 4:52 PM David Schinazi <[e-mail]>
> wrote:
>
>> This sounds very useful for the domestic violence resources use case, but
>> at the same time I could imagine malware websites abusing it to erase
>> traces of how a machine got infected. Would it be possible to get user
>> consent per origin for this?
>> David
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 8, 2023 at 2:42 PM Eric Lawrence <[e-mail]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> This generally seems useful.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I can foresee some user confusion if a user encountered the interstitial
>>> page when visiting the target site in InPrivate/Incognito mode, but I also
>>> wouldn’t want to skip the interstitial page in those privacy modes (because
>>> it could be abused as an oracle that would reveal to the site whether a
>>> visitor is using a Private Mode already).
>>>
>>> In Chromium-based browsers, browser extensions are disabled by default
>>> while in Private Mode. It does not look like you propose to disable
>>> extensions from interacting with “Off-the-record” sites?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *From:* Shivan Kaul Sahib <[e-mail]>
>>> *Sent:* Thursday, June 8, 2023 2:14 PM
>>> *To:* [e-mail]; HTTP Working Group <[e-mail]>
>>> *Subject:* Request-Off-The-Record Mode header
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> You don't often get email from [e-mail]. Learn why
>>> this is important <https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification>
>>>
>>> Hi folks, this is a head's up and early request for feedback:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Brave is shipping support for an HTTP response header sent by a website
>>> that wants the client to treat the website as "off-the-record" i.e. not
>>> store anything in storage, not record the site visit in history etc. Kind
>>> of like incognito/private browsing mode but site-initiated and only for a
>>> specific website. The header is simple: it would look like `Request-OTR:
>>> 1`. Some details here:
>>> https://brave.com/privacy-updates/26-request-off-the-record/#request-otr-header. Currently
>>> we bootstrap for websites that have expressed interest in this (mainly
>>> websites that have help resources for domestic violence victims, which was
>>> the driving use-case) by preloading a list of websites into the browser,
>>> but it would be nice to standardize the header. We're considering doing the
>>> work in the HTTP WG at IETF: it's envisioned to be a simple header.
>>>
>>> I see that this idea was previously discussed in W3C WebAppSec:
>>> https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webappsec/2015Sep/0016.html,
>>> and there was a draft Mozilla spec:
>>> https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Automatic_Private_Browsing_Upgrades,
>>> though as a CSP directive.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Happy to hear what people think.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>