Re: Using postgresql.org account as an auth id on third partywebsites

On Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 12:25 AM Álvaro Hernández <aht@ongres.com> wrote:

On 17/9/19 14:14, Jonathan S. Katz wrote:
> On 9/17/19 11:54 AM, Álvaro Hernández wrote:
>>
>>      Great, thank you Jonathan.
>>
>>      Now.... how do we register with the "central system"?
> Well, first make sure that it works :)
>
> I've not handled the registration process myself, but to test it, ensure
> you can authenticate against the test pgweb instance you've set up. You
> can configure it from the "Community auth sites" and "community auth
> orgs" part of the admin. So once that works, I think there can be the
> conversation of actually registering with the "central system."

     We can do that, no problem.

>
> To date, apps that use community auth have been within pginfra (AFAICT),
> so to "formally request" it probably involves a longer conversation,
> either here or with webmaster@ as the process of doing so has not been
> exercised yet.

     Fair enough. Now.... I'd like not to waste any resources before
having that "longer conversation" then, which I hope it is not that
long. We're building a user authentication system on top of
https://postgresqlco.nf that will use external id providers like Google
Account, Twitter and others. We'd like to provide postgresql.org
community account as a first-class citizen authentication mechanism,
since this is something for the PostgreSQL Community as a whole. If this
is possible, great! If not, we should know asap and stick with the other
providers only --but I hope should not be a big deal.
 

So far, we have only approved services running fully managed by the infrastructure team to handle this. Some of them are managed by different organisations (such as PostgreSQL Europe or PostgreSQL US), but since they are running on the main infrastructure there the team has the ability to reach and manage all the data.

Right now, the system isn't really set up to handle things outside of that, as some things (particularly in relation to our new friend the gdpr) are handled completely manually and are not in the system. There are a number of things that should be implemented before doing something like that, such as the ability to push out a forced account delete (no API for that now). Or at the very least, a second level of consent about sharing data in an irretrievable way.

    Hi Magnus.

    You mention that this mechanism is already approved for different organisations. Indeed, this is where I saw it in action and loved the idea! But if it is approved for third-party (from a legal perspective) organisations, I don't see why it would not be for other third-party organisations. You mention GDPR and, if anything, that they are running "on the main infrastructure" (i.e. the infrastructure of a separate legal entity, I assume the PostgreSQL Canada Association) seems like something which may have serious GDPR issues on its own. I understand how things are down when being built, but have a look just in case ;)

    But back on topic, on what concerns my request: let's open this up to any third party organisation --it has already been done. I don't see why having "the team the ability to manage all the data" changes anything. What I'm requesting access to is a system for third-party authentication, similar to "login with Google" or any other auth provider. There's no "forced account delete" mechanism that I'm aware of, and there is little to no information sharing other than "hey, please authenticate this person and let me know the boolean information of whether that was successful or not" (optionally request name and email, as other authentication providers do, that is PII, but that's it). What auth providers do is a way to force delete a session (an authentication token, which typically expires quickly, but could be forcibly expired). This is optional, and in no way would force any deletion on the third party (it is the user who should use the third party's account deletion procedures).

    In summary: it is already opened to third parties, please help us get to use it too, it's a very cool thing ;)


    Álvaro

-- 

Alvaro Hernandez


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