Re: [aerogear-dev] Storing the payload of the push notification

On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 9:57 PM, Summers Pittman <supittma(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote: > On 02/05/2015 02:24 PM, Matthias Wessendorf wrote: > > While working on the doc for AGPUSH-1258, I found this in Apple's "iOS > Developer Program License Agreement": > > ... > Further, as a condition to using the APN, You agree not to transmit > sensitive personal or confidential information belonging to an individual > (e.g. a social security number, financial account or transactional > information, or any information where the individual may have a reasonable > expectation of secure transmission) as part of any Push Notification, and > You agree to comply with any applicable notice or consent requirements with > respect to any collection, transmission, maintenance, processing or use of > an end user’s personal information. > ... > > That means, if an app-developer sends something like "Your blood > donation appointment is tomorrow" to a user of his mobile app, the > app-developer is breaking the Apple terms _and_ the law in a lot of > countries (at least in all EU countries) :-) > > What we have to remember is that large amounts of information in > aggregate can become personally identifying even if any individual message > is not. So the law in this case doesn't help since it is only the data in > context which becomes personally identifying or protected. > Good point. > > I don't think anyone is advocating for sending sensitive information via > push, but what we are advocating is not putting a big target on our (or our > user's) backs out of the gate by storing all of the messages by default. > Only the alert is stored (PR has been merged) . But, and this is just an idea that just popped out, couldn't we encrypt the value of the alert that is stored? It could be by default or a config thingy ...

> > BTW. for Google I don't seem to find a similar paragraph, but IMO they > are not that thoughtful on privacy terms (compared to Apple). > > > Now, for our UPS guide (or documentation), I will add a few sentences > to make it clear that our app-developers should NEVER submit sensitive > personal or confidential information with a push. > > Regarding a "Privacy Policy", I will also make clear what data of the > push we store, for analytic reasons. > > You'll see a PR during my Friday. > > > > > Greetings, > Matthias > > > > On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 2:53 PM, Matthias Wessendorf <matzew(a)apache.org&gt; > wrote: > >> I have created AGPUSH-1257 and AGPUSH-1258 >> >> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 3:22 PM, Matthias Wessendorf <matzew(a)apache.org&gt; >> wrote: >> >>> Hi, >>> >>> earlier this week there was some discussion about storing the payload >>> of the push notifications ([1]). >>> >>> Right now, we store some metrics (e.g. client that send the push, >>> number of devices, deliveryStatus etc) *and* the entire content of >>> push notification. This includes custom key/value pairs, the name of the >>> sound file or even the size of the badge. >>> >>> Is all of that, storing the entire push notification payload really >>> needed? *No!* >>> >>> What do we need, and why? >>> >>> For counting the number of sent pushes (over time), the metrics are >>> good enough. We do *NOT* need any of the push content for that, that's >>> correct! >>> >>> But we want to do more on the 1.1.0 release. We want to introduce some >>> analytic features, to give our app developers (our users) a better >>> understanding of their push usage (see [2]). >>> >>> In order to see details on how successful a push was (or not), we need >>> to only store the value of the alert key: >>> https://aerogear.org/docs/unifiedpush/aerogear-push-ios/img/PushMessage.png >>> >>> Ok, let's change that (see [3])! >>> >>> For our app developers, using the UPS to reach out to their mobile app >>> users ("user engagement"), it's important to understand which push was more >>> successful: >>> >>> - "Get 10% discount today" (sent on a Monday) >>> - "Our shop got new site, check it out and get 5% discount" (sent >>> on a Friday) >>> >>> With the upcoming analytics we can help them to improve usage of their >>> app. User interaction is very important to a successful mobile application >>> and push is a key driver here! Our app developers want an app that is >>> actively used by their users (Nobody wants his app sitting on the last page >>> of the device or, even worse, in a folder together with Apple-Maps). >>> Therefore it's critical for our app developers to understand the relevance >>> of their push messages sent and how it impacts the usage of their app. >>> That's why we do the analytics described in [2]. And, yes - only the alert, >>> not the entire payload is needed for that. >>> <https://gist.github.com/matzew/b6459083f39394a892c5#privacy>Privacy >>> >>> On the mentioned PR there was also some discussion about privacy >>> violations and stuff, when we store the content of the notification. An >>> example where *sensitive* data was sent over push was given. Something >>> like: "Dear Mr. Joe, your blood donation appointment was scheduled for 3 >>> p.m" >>> >>> 1. This is not how push notifications are used for mobile apps. >>> Push is to signal, not carry actual (sensitive) data around. >>> 2. In a lot of countries, at least almost all European countries, >>> you are not even allowed, by EU law, to give "data" to 3rd party providers >>> (like the push-networks of Microsoft, Apple or Google). >>> >>> How does the actual (sensitive) data come to an app? >>> >>> As said above a push is used to signal/ping an app, to indicate that >>> there is real data for the mobile app user. In the background the mobile >>> app tries to connect to the backend of the company, running/maintaining the >>> mobile app. After the real data was fetched, "local notifcations" are used >>> to give the user a visible notification, like "Dear Mr. Joe, your blood >>> donation appointment was scheduled for 3 p.m", or simply "New appointment >>> scheduled". >>> >>> If the app was a chat system (and not a blood donation app from the Red >>> Cross), it would be the same: After a signal, the app connects to "chat >>> server" and receives the actual chat message from there. A reply would go >>> over the same "chat server" connection. None of this would go over a 3rd >>> party push network provider like Google, Microsoft or Apple. >>> >>> What would we store from these silent notifications? >>> >>> Nothing, since there is no alert, we would just store the metrics (e.g. >>> client that send the push, number of devices, deliveryStatus etc). If the >>> signaling is actually done with an alert (e.g. alert:"you got a new Chat >>> text" or "New appointment scheduled"), we would store that. >>> >>> I hope this helps a bit to understand what is stored and also why we do >>> need a little bit of information. >>> >>> BTW. our documentation already says that push is used for signaling, >>> not carrying actual data around, but based on this email I will update it >>> to have explicit information on best practices. Also, the documentation >>> will be clear about what (the alert only) is stored by the UPS, and why. >>> (see [4]) >>> >>> Greetings, >>> >>> Matthias >>> >>> - [1] >>> https://github.com/aerogear/aerogear-unifiedpush-server/pull/478 >>> - [2] https://issues.jboss.org/browse/AGPUSH-971 >>> - [3] JIRA TO CREATE: to only store ALERT and not the full payload >>> - [4] JIRA TO CREATE: update doc regarding push message storage and >>> best practices >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Matthias Wessendorf >>> >>> blog: http://matthiaswessendorf.wordpress.com/ >>> sessions: http://www.slideshare.net/mwessendorf >>> twitter: http://twitter.com/mwessendorf >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Matthias Wessendorf >> >> blog: http://matthiaswessendorf.wordpress.com/ >> sessions: http://www.slideshare.net/mwessendorf >> twitter: http://twitter.com/mwessendorf >> > > > > -- > Matthias Wessendorf > > blog: http://matthiaswessendorf.wordpress.com/ > sessions: http://www.slideshare.net/mwessendorf > twitter: http://twitter.com/mwessendorf > > > _______________________________________________ > aerogear-dev mailing listaerogear-dev@lists.jboss.orghttps://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/aerogear-dev > > > > -- > Summers Pittman > >>Phone:404 941 4698 > >>Java is my crack. > > > _______________________________________________ > aerogear-dev mailing list > aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org > https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/aerogear-dev > _______________________________________________ aerogear-dev mailing list aerogear-dev(a)lists.jboss.org https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/aerogear-dev