Giving access to data

Minimal sharing

A service confirms a person’s age without revealing their date of birth to a second device.

Description

Verifying information about the user by checking data held by another service. Sharing is limited to only what’s necessary. For example, a user can prove they are over 18 without sharing their date of birth.

Advantages

  • Removes the burden on individuals to continually prove the same things
  • Removes the need for the user to share more than they would like to with each service
  • Minimises data sharing between organisations
  • Reduces the need to duplicate sensitive data

Limitations

  • Users cannot always revoke access
  • Additional infrastructure required to validate data
  • Data sharing can happen in the background without users knowing

Examples

Related patterns