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MSC2140: Terms of Service API for Identity Servers and Integration Managers

Note: This MSC was added to in MSC2264

MSC1692 introduces a method for homeservers to require that users read and agree to certain documents before being permitted to use the service. This proposal introduces a corresponding method that can be used with Identity Servers and Integration Managers.

Requirements for this proposal are:

  • ISes and IMs should be able to give multiple documents a user must agree to abide by
  • Each document should be versioned
  • ISes and IMs must, for each request that they handle, know that the user making the request has agreed to their data being used. This need not be absolute proof (we will always have to trust that the client actually showed the document to the user) but it must be reasonably demonstrable that the user has given informed consent for the client to use that service.
  • ISes and IMs must be able to prevent users from using the service if they have not provided agreement.
  • A user should only have to agree to each version of each document once for their Matrix ID, ie. having agreed to a set of terms in one client, they should not have to agree to them again when using a different client.
  • Documents should be de-duplicated between services. If two or more services are hosted by the same organisation, the organisation should have the option to give their users a single document that encompasses both services (bearing in mind that the user must be able to opt-out of components of a service whilst still being able to use the service without that component).

Identity Servers do not currently require any kind of user login to access the service and so are unable to track what users have agreed to what terms in the way that Homeservers do.

Proposal

Throuhgout this proposal, $prefix will be used to refer to the prefix of the API in question, ie. /_matrix/identity/v2 for the IS API and /_matrix/integrations/v1 for the IM API.

Note the removal of the /api prefix and migration to v2 in the IS API following convention from MSC2134.

This proposal introduces:

  • A v2 API prefix, with authentication, for the Identity Service
  • The $prefix/terms endpoint
  • The m.accepted_terms section in account data
  • POST /_matrix/client/r0/account/3pid/unbind endpoints on the client/server API

This proposal removes:

  • The bind_email and bind_msisdn on the Homeserver /register endpoint

This proposal relies on both Integration Managers and Identity Servers being able to identify users by their MXID and store the fact that a given MXID has indicated that they accept the terms given. Integration Managers already identify users in this way by authenticating them using the OpenID endpoint on the Homeserver. This proposal introduces the same mechanism to Identity Servers and adds authentication across the Identity Service API.

IS API Authentication

All current endpoints within /_matrix/identity/api/v1/ will be duplicated into /_matrix/identity/v2, noting that MSC2134 changes the behaviour of lookups. Authentication is still expected on MSC2134's proposed endpoints. Support for application/x-form-www-urlencoded parameters in requests will be dropped from all endpoints.

Any request to any endpoint within /_matrix/identity/v2, with the exception of:

  • /_matrix/identity/v2
  • /_matrix/identity/v2/pubkey/*
  • The new $prefix/account/register endpoint
  • The new GET /_matrix/identity/v2/terms
  • $prefix/account/logout

...may return an error with M_UNAUTHORIZED errcode with HTTP status code 401. This indicates that the user must authenticate with OpenID and supply a valid access_token.

Clients authenticate either via an Authorization header with a Bearer token or an access_token query parameter.

The existing endpoints under /_matrix/identity/api/v1/ continue to be unauthenticated but will be deprecated. ISes may support the old v1 API for as long as they wish. Once ISes remove support for the old APIs, those endpoints must return HTTP Status 404. Clients must update to use the v2 API as soon as possible.

OpenID authentication in the IS API will work the same as in the Integration Manager API, as specified in MSC1961.

When clients supply an identity server to the Homeserver in order for the Homeserver to make calls to the IS on its behalf, it must also supply its access token for the Identity Server alongside in the id_access_token key of the same JSON object. That is, in the main request object for requestToken and /_matrix/client/r0/rooms/{roomId}/invite requests and in the threepidCreds object when supplying 3PID credentials (eg. in the m.email.identity UI auth stage). The server must also relay M_TERMS_NOT_SIGNED errors back to the client. Exceptions to this are any requests where the only IS operation the Homeserver may perform is unbinding, ie. /_matrix/client/r0/account/deactivate and /_matrix/client/r0/account/3pid/delete, in which case the unbind will be authenticated by a signed request from the Homeserver.

HS Register API

The bind_email and bind_msisdn options to /_matrix/client/r0/register in the client/server API will be removed. Due to the fact that /_matrix/identity/v2/3pid/bind requires authentication, it will no longer be possible for the Homeserver to bind 3PIDs as part of the registration process.

IS Register API

The following new APIs will be introduced to support OpenID auth as per MSC1961:

  • /_matrix/identity/v2/account/register
  • /_matrix/identity/v2/account
  • /_matrix/identity/v2/account/logout

Note again the removal of the /api prefix and migration to v2 following convention from MSC2134.

Terms API

New API endpoints will be introduced:

GET $prefix/terms:

This returns a set of documents that the user must agree to abide by in order to use the service. Its response is similar to the structure used in the m.terms UI auth flow of the Client/Server API:

{
    "policies": {
        "terms_of_service": {
            "version": "2.0",
            "en": {
                "name": "Terms of Service",
                "url": "https://example.org/somewhere/terms-2.0-en.html"
            },
            "fr": {
                "name": "Conditions d'utilisation",
                "url": "https://example.org/somewhere/terms-2.0-fr.html"
            }
        },
        "privacy_policy": {
            "version": "1.2",
            "en": {
                "name": "Privacy Policy",
                "url": "https://example.org/somewhere/privacy-1.2-en.html"
            },
            "fr": {
                "name": "Politique de confidentialité",
                "url": "https://example.org/somewhere/privacy-1.2-fr.html"
            }
        }
    }
}

Each document (ie. key/value pair in the 'policies' object) MUST be uniquely identified by its URL. It is therefore strongly recommended that the URL contains the version number of the document. The name and version keys, however, are used only to provide a human-readable description of the document to the user.

This endpoint does not require authentication.

POST $prefix/terms:

Requests to this endpoint have a single key, user_accepts whose value is a list of URLs (given by the url field in the GET response) of documents that the user has agreed to:

{
    "user_accepts": ["https://example.org/somewhere/terms-2.0-en.html"]
}

This endpoint requires authentication.

The clients MUST include the correct URL for the language of the document that was presented to the user and they agreed to. Servers should accept agreement of any one language of each document as sufficient, regardless of what language a client is operating in: users should not have to re-consent to documents if they change their client to a different language.

The server responds with an empty JSON object. The server must not assume that the client will agree to all documents in a single request.

Accepted Terms Account Data

This proposal also defines the m.accepted_terms section in User Account Data in the client/server API that clients SHOULD use to track what sets of terms the user has consented to. This has an array of URLs under the 'accepted' key to which the user has agreed to.

An m.accepted_terms section therefore resembles the following:

{
    "accepted": [
        "https://example.org/somewhere/terms-1.2-en.html",
        "https://example.org/somewhere/privacy-1.2-en.html"
    ]
}

Whenever a client submits a POST $prefix/terms request to an IS or IM or completes an m.terms flow on the HS (or as soon as possible afterwards, ie. after registration is complete), it SHOULD update this account data section adding any the URLs of any additional documents that the user agreed to to this list.

Terms Acceptance in the API

Before any requests are made to an Identity Server or Integration Manager, the client must use the GET $prefix/terms endpoint to fetch the set of documents that the user must agree to in order to use the service.

It then cross-references this set of documents against the m.accepted_terms account data and presents to the user any documents that they have not already agreed to, along with UI for them to indicate their agreement. If there are no such documents (ie. if the policies dict is empty or the user has already agreed to all documents) the client proceeds to perform the OpenID registration. If there are new terms documents, the client prompts the user for agreement, then once the user has indicated their agreement, it adds these URLs to m.accepted_terms account data and then proceeds with OpenID authentication, getting a token from the Homeserver and submitting this to the service using the register endpoint.

Having done this, if the user agreed to any new documents, it performs a POST $prefix/terms request to signal to the server the set of documents that the user has agreed to.

Any request to any endpoint in the IM API, and the /_matrix/identity/v2/ namespace of the IS API, with the exception of /_matrix/identity/v2 itself, may return:

  • M_UNAUTHORIZED errcode with HTTP status code 401. This indicates that the user must authenticate with OpenID and supply a valid access_token.
  • M_TERMS_NOT_SIGNED errcode with HTTP status code 403. This indicates that the user must agree to (new) terms in order to use or continue to use the service.

The /_matrix/identity/v2/3pid/unbind endpoint must not return either of these errors if the request has a valid signature from a Homeserver, and is being authenticated as such.

In summary, the process for using a service that has not previously been used in the current login session is:

  • GET $prefix/terms
  • Compare result with m.accepted_terms account data, get set of documents pending agreement.
  • If non-empty, show this set of documents to the user and wait for the user to indicate their agreement.
  • Add the newly agreed documents to m.accepted_terms.
  • On success, or if there were no documents pending agreement, get an OpenID token from the Homeserver and submit this token to the register endpoint. Store the resulting access token.
  • If the set of documents pending agreement was non-empty, Perform a POST $prefix/terms request to the service with these documents.

POST /_matrix/client/r0/account/3pid/unbind

A client uses this client/server API endpoint to request that the Homeserver removes the given 3PID from the given Identity Server, or all Identity Servers. Takes the same parameters as POST /_matrix/client/r0/account/3pid/delete, ie. id_server, medium, address. Similar to the other unbind endpoints, this endpoint does not require an id_access_token because the homeserver can only unbind.

Returns the same as POST /_matrix/client/r0/account/3pid/delete.

Clients may add IS bindings for 3PIDs that already exist on the user's Homeserver account by using the POST /_matrix/client/r0/account/3pid to re-add the 3PID.

Unstable feature flag for transition

In order to allow client implementations to determine if the homeserver they are developed against supports id_access_token, an unstable feature flag of m.id_access_token is to be added to /versions. When the flag is false or not present, clients must assume that the homeserver does not support being given id_access_token and may receive an error for doing so. Clients are expected to use the supported specification versions the homeserver advertises instead of the feature flag's presence once this proposal is included in a release of the specification.

Tradeoffs

The Identity Service API previously did not require authentication, and OpenID is reasonably complex, adding a significant burden to both clients and servers. A custom HTTP header was also considered that could be added to assert that the client agrees to a particular set of terms. We decided against this in favour of re-using existing primitives that already exist in the Matrix ecosystem. Custom HTTP headers are not used anywhere else within Matrix. This also gives a very simple and natural way for ISes to enforce that users may only bind 3PIDs to their own MXIDs.

This introduces a different way of accepting terms from the client/server API which uses User-Interactive Authentication. In the client/server API, the use of UI auth allows terms acceptance to be integrated into the registration flow in a simple and backwards-compatible way. Another option here would be to use UI Auth on the register endpoint. This would also not allow users to register before accepting the terms. However, this would then make the OpenID registration process different and non-standard.

The m.accepted_terms section contains only URLs of the documents that have been agreed to. This loses information like the name and version of the document, but:

  • It would be up to the clients to copy this information correctly into account data.
  • Having just the URLs makes it much easier for clients to make a list of URLs and find documents not already agreed to.

Potential issues

This change deprecates all v1 endpoints and so will require clients to update to continue working.

Security considerations

Requiring authentication on the IS API means it will no longer be possible to use it anonymously.

It is assumed that once servers publish a given version of a document at a given URL, the contents of that URL will not change. This could be mitigated by identifying documents based on a hash of their contents rather than their URLs. Agreement to terms in the client/server API makes this assumption, so this proposal aims to be consistent.

Conclusion

This proposal adds an error response to all endpoints on the API and a custom HTTP header on all requests that is used to signal agreement to a set of terms and conditions. The use of the header is only necessary if the server has no other means of tracking acceptance of terms per-user. The IS API is not authenticated so ISes will have no choice but to use the header. The IM API is authenticated so IMs may either use the header or store acceptance per-user.

A separate endpoint is specified with a GET request for retrieving the set of terms required and a POST to indicate that the user consents to those terms.