EU Draft Digital Signature Directive

[Ian Brown]

> At the risk of joining Nigel in the pillory...

Not at all ;)

> Quite a few contributors to this group as well as others have said
> there is no reason to have a public directory at all because
> everyone only wants to talk to their friends - now someone has
> noticed that it might be handy to have a method of checking whether
> the travel agent you are thinking of buying a holiday from exists

In this situation, I would check the travel agent was bonded with ABTA (a
certificate would be very useful for that) and pay with VISA. The first
ensures my money is going somewhere bonded, the second insures the
purchase.

More generally, what due diligence do you take before dealing with a
company you have never come across before (electronically *or* physically)?
I might look for membership of a trade association, ask contacts if they
have dealt with this firm before...

I suppose I could ring up Companies House and check a company of that name
exists... This could be facilitated online by certificates. But, I want to
know more than simply that a company exists. There are already many cowboy
firms out there that are perfectly legitimately registered as firms, and
would qualify under any scheme you could devise for certifying a name->key
binding.

The general point is that you usually build up a business relationship with
a company before spending large amounts of money with them, or have other
assurances (like ABTA or an advert in a reputable magazine), or pass the
risk to others (VISA).

> and being able to look him up in a public directory would be quite
> useful too...

We already have Thomson's, the Yellow Pages etc., none of which need a
government license...

Ian.