1. Introduction
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1.1. Terminology
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2. Requirements
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Explicitness from senders: Senders must define clear usage control policies that specify how data may be processed, for what purpose, and under which conditions.
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Specificity from recipients: Recipients must be able to articulate exactly what data they require for what purpose. This is related to data minimization and ensures a high signal-to-noise ratio, reducing unnecessary exposure for the sender.
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Uniqueness of each exchange: Every transaction is context-dependent and shaped by highly specific policies.
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Legal compliance: Exchanges must adhere to jurisdictional regulations such as the [GDPR] in Europe or the California Consumer Privacy Act ([CCPA]).
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Accountability: Transparency in both data verification and usage is essential. All parties must be able to audit the lifecycle of the data and demonstrate compliance when required.
3. Model
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4. Vocabulary
4.1. Classes
4.1.1. Trust Envelope
| IRI | te:TrustEnvelope |
|---|---|
| Label | Trust Envelope |
| Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept |
| Definition | A Trust Envelope is a unique data document, timestamped and digitally signed by a sender, representing a singular and voluntary act of associating a data unit with context about this data unit’s purported history and intended destiny. |
4.1.2. Data Provenance
| IRI | te:DataProvenance |
|---|---|
| Label | Data Provenance |
| Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept |
| Definition | Contextual information that captures the origin and history of data, including its source entity, entity providing the data, and issuance time. |
4.1.3. Policy Provenance
| IRI | te:PolicyProvenance |
|---|---|
| Label | Policy Provenance |
| Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept |
| Definition | Contextual information that captures the origin and history of a policy, including entities that have usage rights over the data unit, entity that will receive the data unit, and issuance time. |
4.2. Properties
4.2.1. Provenance
| IRI | te:provenance |
|---|---|
| Label | Provenance |
| Type | skos:Concept, rdfs:Property |
| Definition | Denotes contextual information related to the origin and history of data units and policies. |
| Domain | te:TrustEnvelope |
| Range | te:DataProvenance, te:PolicyProvenance |
4.2.2. Sender
| IRI | te:sender |
|---|---|
| Label | Sender |
| Type | skos:Concept, rdfs:Property |
| Definition | Entity that issues the trust envelope. |
| Domain | te:DataProvenance |
| Range | xsd:anyURI |
4.2.3. Recipient
| IRI | te:recipient |
|---|---|
| Label | |
| Type | skos:Concept, rdfs:Property |
| Definition | Entity that receives the trust envelope. |
| Domain | te:PolicyProvenance |
| Range | xsd:anyURI |
4.2.4. Rights holder
| IRI | te:rightsHolder |
|---|---|
| Label | Rights holder |
| Type | skos:Concept, rdfs:Property |
| Definition | Entity claiming to have usage rights over the data unit. |
| Domain | te:PolicyProvenance |
| Range | xsd:anyURI |
4.2.5. Sign
| IRI | te:sign |
|---|---|
| Label | Sign |
| Type | skos:Concept, rdfs:Property |
| Definition | Denotes information about digital signatures. |
| Domain | te:TrustEnvelope, te:DataProvenance, te:PolicyProvenance |
| Range | xsd:anyURI |
5. Materialization
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add worked out examples
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current approach on how to signatures + limitations
5.1. Age Verification
5.2. Cargo Monitoring
6. Legal Considerations
The Trust Envelope model was developed to be regulation-agnostic, to be able to tackle legal requirements from different jurisdictions, different branches of law, e.g., data protection or intellectual property law, and different data types, e.g., personal or non-personal data. This is of particular importance to understand and correctly model all the parties that might have rights and obligations over the data unit, how they interplay, and how they are to be correctly interpreted and enforced.
Nonetheless, the terms chosen to model data provenance, in particular related to the source entity of the data, where kept in line with European legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) [gdpr] and the Data Governance Act (DGA) [dga] as these regulations are being followed and similarly adapted in other jurisdictions' regulations.
Moreover, by incorporating provenance and usage policies as fundamental components of trustful data exchanges, Trust Envelopes can be used as auditing tools by external legal authorities to assess good and poor practices of recipients, and possibly held as proof in judgments for the later case.
7. Namespaces
Commonly used namespace prefixes used in this specification:
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> . @prefix odrl: <http://www.w3.org/ns/odrl/2/> . @prefix te: <https://w3id.org/trustenvelope#> @prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> . @prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .