P3p?

[bsacks]

How serious are you guys about implementing P3P. I mean, do you all feel it is a major priority, or is it another technology that will take months to be relevant and then sort of evaporate.

[Scot-Bot]

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the acronym. What is it?

[BC]

P3P is a new privacy standard being developed by the W3C Consortium.

You can learn more about it at http://www.w3.org/P3P/

[Setac]

I am hearing that some testers of the MSIE6 beta are finding that their present cookies are NOT working correctly. Since some of my sites depend on cookies this is of concern to me. I have read that Netscape 6 presently has some of the P3P standard implemented and is working on more compliance.

I think we have some time before it is implemented, but when MSIE 6 is out, I fear we will have no choice but to conform. Since MSIE6 is in beta and available for down load... the release date cannot be too far away. I expect to see it in 3 to 6 months.

The present info on the web seems to be limited to the P3P papers from W3C. Which would be great if I were designing a browser. There seems to be little info from a site designer's viewpoint.

I think the P3P subject is too new for there to be much interest. When MSIE 6 hits then I think many developers will be in a panic as their cookie dependent sites begin to break. I assume you asked because you are considering creating a new section at SitePoint or writing something on the subject. It might be good to have a section. I fear that interest will be low until MSIE 6's release. Also, the standards are not fully written and keep changing. So most information is premature.

[bsacks]

I haden't cosidered the cookie issue. So it looks like I will be in a panic too. I am asking because I am understaffed and don't have time to learn a new language/protocol etc. But, if cookies are going to be effected I have to.

[Setac]

You probably saw the other thread here, "P3P How to". If not check it out.

Like you, I don't need to spend time learning something that is not absolutely needed. But, it appears the P3P stuff will be mandatory. Fortunately it is not that complex and the IBM P3P Editor reduces the learning curve.

I think I have from now until the time that MSIE 6 becomes popular to get it right. Since I am bringing up a new e-com site I decided to learn now. I am still in the process. I wrote a summary of the problems and included my work-a-rounds and posted it on my web site. The P3P links and the link to my site are in the thread mentioned above.