Subject: [ipfix-req] IPFIX Requirement draft status - section 6.6

From: "Reinaldo Penno" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 05:49:48 -0700

I would like to understand this requirement in view of the debates regarding
privacy and anonymization on the Internet. I wonder if the method to
guarantee anonymization is to report a greater prefix is acceptable. Well,
but if the whole block is offically assigned or in the extreme cases of
portable blocks? You could not trace back to individual, but certainly to a
institution you can. 

Since the requirement is a MAY anyway, maybe we could say that anonymization
is not to report the field in question at all if  the prefix or a subset of
it can be traced back to the parties interested in anonymization.

6.6.  Anonymization

   The exporting process MAY be capable of anonymizing source and
   destination IP addresses in flow data before exporting them. It MAY
   support anonymization of port numbers and other fields. Please note
   that anonymization is not originally an application requirement, but
   derived from general requirements for treatment of traffic within a
   network.

thanks,

Reinaldo