CACert Web of Trust Page
What it is
I am a "Certified CACert Assurer" (disclaimer). Here is my CACert issued certificate to prove this. In short, it means that I check your identity using identity document you present to me and will be able to give you 20 "points". With 50 points or more you can request certificates from CACert which contain your name, in addition to your e-mail address. E-mail programs such as Mozilla Mail, Netscape, Opera and Outlook (Express) use certificates to sign e-mails and to receive encrypted e-mails (S/MIME). Some websites require personal certificates for access. You can also get server certificates and your PGP key signed by CACert signing authority.
CACert's services are very similar to that offered by Thawte's Web of Trust. The main difference is that CAcert is a non-profit organisation. Thawte on the other hand is a commercial company. Although Thawte's personal certificates are free (for now?), (web-)server certificates will have to be paid for. All CACert certificates are free, including those for servers.
Another import difference between CACert and Thawte is that Thawte's root-certificate is included as a trusted root certificate in almost every operating system and e-mail program. This is not the case for CACert. Its root-certificate is currently not in any 'trusted store'. In fact, there is only a slim chance that this will happen because software vendors generally ask monetary compensation for this privilege. This means that users will always receive a cryptic warning when they receive a message signed with a certificate issued by CACert.
Appointment for notarisation
Even if you are not an Indian or Ducth national, I can still certify you.
I live in Amsterdam Oud Zuid area. I work at Vrije Universiteit. Hence you can meet me either somewhere in Amsterdam central or in the Univ. Please contact me to fix up a time and place for the notarisation process.
The process
First you need to contact me for an appointment. In the email please inform me of the email address you have used to register with CACert.
When we meet you need to bring with you the originals of government issued ID cards which has a photograph. Producing one ID gets you 15 points and producing two gets you 25 points. The most acceptable IDs are driver's license, passport and national identity card. I will not accept student or staff IDs, library or other club membership cards, credit cards with photographs etc. If you plan to present some other ID card, please check with me whether it is acceptable.
Please note that I will not be able to notarise your identity if your name in CACert system is in any way different from that of the official documents that you produce.
You need to bring along the originals of the ID card you will be showing me. When you come down to meet me, please print a copy of the WoT form that can be obtained by loggin into the CACert website and navigating to 'CACert Web of Trust'. I will then check your identity and sign the notarisation form. You will also need to sign your section of the notarisation paper. Please do not sign the form before meeting me. The form contains personal details (like date of birth) that may be of concern to privacy conscious users. As per CACert rules, I am obliged to protect your privacy by not revealing the details in the form to anyone. You can take that as personal promise from my side.
I will then log-on to the CACert website and assign 15/25 points to you. You'll be notified of this by CACert via email. Once you have 50 or more points you can request one or more high security (Class 3) certificates by loggin into the CACert site.
PGP/GPG Key signing
I am a very strong supporter of personal cryptographic softwares like PGP and GnuPG, using my GPG key to sign all my outging emails as well as signing software releases. I would love to sign your PGP/GPG key as well as get my key signed by you. Please let me know if you would like to sign (and get signed) my GPG key. You can get more details of my GnuPG key here.
Disclaimer
By order of the Royal Dutch Brotherhood of Notaries (KNB) I have to declare the following:
These webpages are in no way intended to suggest that a "Thawte Notary" or a 'CACert Notary' is a notary public or a civil law notary. If you require the services of a Dutch notary, please visit this website: www.notaris.nl. Certificates issued by Thawte and CAcert are NOT "qualified certificates" in the sense of the Dutch law. If you require a "qualified certificate", contact one of the (few) companies approved by the Dutch government.
