Skip to content

Consent Manager: Architecture & Functionality

AICO’s privacy-first, local-first design requires robust, auditable, and user-empowering consent management. This document outlines the requirements, functionality, and architecture of the Consent Manager, including backend and frontend responsibilities.

Overview

AICO’s Consent Manager ensures that all sensitive data operations, sharing, plugin access, and federated device sync are governed by explicit, granular, and revocable user consent. Consent is a core pillar for privacy, autonomy, and trust in the system.

Core Functionality

  1. Explicit, Granular Consent Capture
  2. Applies to data access, sharing, plugin/module permissions, device federation, and external integrations.

  3. Consent can be scoped per operation, data type, device, plugin, or component.

  4. Consent Revocation & Lifecycle Management

  5. Users can review, modify, or revoke any consent at any time.

  6. Revocation is immediately enforced system-wide.

  7. Consent Policy Enforcement

  8. All access control checks reference current consent state.

  9. Deny by default: no access without explicit user consent.

  10. Consent Audit & Transparency

  11. Every consent grant/revoke/change is logged in the audit system.

  12. Users can view a complete history of their consent decisions.

  13. User-Friendly UI

  14. Clear, non-technical explanations of what is being consented to.

  15. Easy to review and manage consents.

  16. Federation & Roaming Support

  17. Consent state syncs securely across trusted devices (with user approval).
  18. Device-specific and global consents.

Architecture Overview

  • Local-First, Modular Service: Runs on-device, integrated with access control and audit modules.
  • Policy Engine: Evaluates consent policies per user, per operation.
  • Consent Store: Secure, encrypted local storage for all consent records.
  • API & UI Layer: For system modules and user/admin interfaces to request, check, and manage consent.
  • Audit Integration: All consent actions are logged in the tamper-evident audit system.
  • Federation Sync: Secure, user-controlled sync of consent state across devices (optional, encrypted, with explicit approval).
  • Plugin/Module Hooks: All third-party and internal modules must query the consent manager before accessing protected resources.

Backend Responsibilities

  • Consent Manager Module: Core service handling consent capture, storage, revocation, and policy enforcement.
  • Consent API: Exposes endpoints for modules, plugins, and frontend to request/check/update consent.
  • Integration with Access Control: All access decisions reference the consent state before granting access.
  • Audit Logging: All consent actions (grant, revoke, modify) are logged in the audit system.
  • Federation Sync Engine: Handles secure, encrypted sync of consent state across trusted devices (with explicit user approval).
  • Encrypted Consent Store: All consent records are stored locally using strong encryption.

Frontend Responsibilities

  • Consent Management UI: User interface for reviewing, granting, and revoking consents.
  • Clear Consent Dialogs: Non-technical explanations of what is being requested, why, and by whom (e.g., plugin, device, module).
  • Consent History Viewer: Allows users to audit their consent decisions over time.
  • Notifications: Alerts for new consent requests, changes, or revocations.
  • Device/Scope Selection: UI to specify device-specific or global consent.
  • Federation Consent Controls: Controls for approving or denying consent sync across devices.

Summary

The Consent Manager is the gatekeeper for all sensitive operations in AICO. It ensures that nothing happens with user data or system capabilities without clear, auditable, and revocable user consent. Consent is enforced, logged, and easily managed by the user, supporting both local-first and federated scenarios.