Re: Personal certs

On 26/01/2016 14:30, Adrian Midgley wrote:
>
> Why did Thawte Web of Trust (a phrase I associate with Phil Zimmerman)
> die?
>
> Did anything supplant it?
>
> One of the things it occurred to me the GMC and Royal Colleges (eg of
> surgeons) could do would be to assist their registrants or members to
> do the difficult bit of the PGP WoTrust - knowing the person is the
> person.
>
> Too new perhaps.
>

When I was on the relevant committee of the Law Society we gave a bit of
thought to the equivalent suggestion.

What these bodies can certainly do is assert "There is a solicitor
[doctor/surgeon/etc] on our register with address [etc]."  What they
find much harder is to assert "The person you are dealing with is the
same person as the one to whom the foregoing assertion applies."

They are naturally concerned about the risks of making the first
assertion and being understood to have made the second,

Nick
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