XEP-0016: Privacy Lists

XEP-0016: Privacy Lists allow you to block communication with other entities, either based on their JID, subscription state or roster group.

Managing Privacy Lists

Getting Privacy Lists

You can get all existing privacy lists from the server like this:

PrivacyListManager privacyListManager = xmppClient.getManager(PrivacyListManager.class);
Collection<PrivacyList> privacyLists = privacyListManager.getPrivacyLists().getResult();

Creating or Updating a Privacy List

Creating or updating a privacy list use the same protocol, therefore there’s only one method for both use cases.

Collection<PrivacyRule> rules = Collections.singleton(PrivacyRule.blockMessagesFrom(Jid.of("juliet@example.com"), 1));
PrivacyList privacyList = new PrivacyList("listName", rules);
privacyListManager.createOrUpdateList(privacyList);

Removing a Privacy List

privacyListManager.removeList("listName");

Setting a Default or Active List

Default lists apply to the user as a whole, and are processed if there is no active list set for the target session.

privacyListManager.setDefaultList("listName");

Active lists only affect the current session for which they are activated and only for the duration of the session.

privacyListManager.setActiveList("listName");

Declining the Use of a Privacy List

The following declines the use of the active list.

privacyListManager.declineActiveList();

And this declines the use of the default list:

privacyListManager.declineDefaultList();

Listening for Privacy List Changes

Whenever a privacy list is updated, the server will notify all connected resources about the updated list. You can listen for these “pushes” in the following way:

privacyListManager.addPrivacyListListener(e -> {
    // e.getListName() has been updated.
});

Blocking Communications With Particular Users

A common use case for Privacy Lists is to block communication with another user.

For this use case you should add a privacy rule for the user, which denies all communication.

new PrivacyList("name", Collections.singleton(PrivacyRule.blockAllCommunicationWith(Jid.of("tybalt@example.com"), 1)));

Privacy rules can also be defined more granular. E.g. if you only want to block IQ stanzas, but allow presences and messages, you would define the rule like:

PrivacyRule privacyRule = PrivacyRule.blockIQFrom(Jid.of("tybalt@example.com"), 1);

XEP-0126: Invisibility

XEP-0126: Invisibility defines a recommendation for using Privacy Lists for invisibility.

You can create an “invisibility” list with a handful of static factory methods, e.g.:

PrivacyList invisibilityList = PrivacyList.createInvisibilityList();