According to Douglas Barnes:
You mention that you feel there is a conflict of interest if you were to charge money to sign keys. Actually, by charging money, I think you would greatly enhance the weight that people gave to your certification, and by leading out with a fee/service arrangement, you would be able to avoid the kind of overload that, say, Julf has run into with penet.
These are very good points. After I get this whole thing put together, I may have an introductory special.... ;^)
If you were to get enough business, you could then just farm the whole thing out to a local notary/clerk type who would probably have more experience with identity documents, the work of other notaries, etc.
And you would be force to trust him, also...and anyone else I may farm this out to. Not this kid. ;^)
Another thought: offer various levels of certification, based on the level of documentation. E.g., one level for xeroxes of id documents (you may just want to rule this out), another level for notarized copy of driver's licence, another for notarized copy of d.l. and birth certificate, etc. etc.
I was thinking of issuing a signed certificate to the customer indicating exactly why I signed his key. This could be presented to other people who question my signature. As per my policy, which can be gotten via finger, I will sign a key iff any of the following is true: 1. I watched him generate his key. 2. I know the person by sight, and can verify his key. 3. He proves, with picture id, in person, that the public key is his. 4. He sends me a photocopy of his picture id and a signed statement containing the pgp footprint of his key. 5. His key is signed by someone whom I trust to sign keys. Note that #5 implies that the other signer has the same policy. My policy will be stated in my certificate. Comments? J. Michael Diehl ;^) |*The 2nd Amendment is there in case the mdiehl@triton.unm.edu | Government forgets about the 1st! <RL> Mike.Diehl@f29.n301.z1 |*God is a good Physicist, and an even .fidonet.org | better Mathematician. <Me> al945@cwns9.ins.cwru.edu|*I'm just looking for the opportunity to (505) 299-2282 (voice) | be Politically Incorrect! <Me> Can we impeach him yet? |*Protected by 18 USC 2511 and 18 USC 2703.