Web Textures
Summary
This page is about dynamic web textures, a feature to allow an LSL script to assign an image URL to a face and cause it to dynamically update from the script.
This raises a potential issue regarding Expected Privacy. The only practical way to accomplish dynamic web textures is to let the client download the image directly. This will expose user's IP addresses.
Benefits of this feature
- Negates the need for scripts like XyText that are very laggy when dynamic displays are large.
- Allows for things like streaming news service HUDs.
- Interactive games can present large amounts of off-world data.
- Corporations that already have many dynamic web assets can reuse them in-world.
- Live porn.
- Web Cams.
Potential LSL implementation
llSetTextureURL(integer face, string url); llRefreshTextureURL(integer face);
Suggested Privacy Protections
Because this feature would expose the IP address of an agent in a way that could identify the agent, especially on a HUD, several suggestion were made to enhance privacy protections. They are listed in order of least effort to implement to most effort.
Global on/off, with one time dialog opt-in
The client could prompt the first time you encounter a web texture, and ask you if you want to enable it, warning you that it will expose your IP address to third parties. This would be similar to the way parcel streaming media prompts the first time you encounter a parcel with it set.
Proxy Options
The client would provide a place to enter a HTTP proxy address for web textures. This would allow the user to enter an anonymizing proxy service if they want to.
Dialog boxes
The highest risk is when using web textures on a HUD. The client could pop up some sort of dialog when attaching a HUD with web textures, asking if you want to allow the HUD to use them. Alternatively this could be done through the normal LSL permission system with a permission request, and something like PERMISSION_TEXTURE_URL.
White/Black List
Similar to Firefox/IE popup blocking, the client could manage white/black lists. This would cause a lot of user input/prompting required for someone flying over the mainland, for example.
Change Users Privacy Expectation
Make it clear to the users that their IP address association with their avatar name is not private information and can't be protected while still providing dynamic and seamless integration with the rest of the Internet.