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Security is a top priority for people communicating and trading on the web. You can offer the assurance of secure email with a Thawte Personal Certificate. This will create peace of mind for those who deal with you.

This is a step-by-step guide on how to get a free Thawte Personal Certificate and become a member of the globally respected Thawte Web of Trust.

A Thawte Personal Certificate is a security device used to digitally sign and encrypt your email communication. Thawte Personal Certificates are trusted by all major S/MIME-compliant secure mail clients, such as Microsoft, Netscape, Novell and Lotus Notes. S/MIME has been adopted by most messaging vendors as the leading email and messaging security standard.

A Thawte Personal Certificate contains your email address, as this is the only information that Thawte can readily verify. Thawte verifies your email address by pinging the address to confirm that you (the applicant) are in fact the owner of that address. That email address is then included in the certificate.

To further ensure that the correct person is receiving the certificate, you will be asked to download the certificate by visiting the Thawte web site. To do this, you'll logon to a specific page, using the unique Thawte user ID and password generated during your registration.

Below is an example of a Thawte Personal Certificate as viewed in Netscape. It will look different in other browsers:

The Thawte Web of Trust (WOT) is a unique, community-driven certification system. It allows people to validate each other's identities, instead of one authority validating all identities. When you become a member of the WOT, you can score points which will eventually enable you to update your Personal Certificate to include your name and become a Thawte notary and sign on other members to the WOT.

The WOT is a trust model adapted from the original PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) Web of Trust, whereby people certify one another in order to establish a level of trust amongst people who have never met. The Thawte WOT differs from the PGP Web of Trust in that it is based on a points system. Once enough points have been obtained from trusted Thawte notaries, a person will be able to get a Personal Certificate with his/her name in the distinguished name field.

Just a brief history of how the WOT came about:

Thawte personnel became the first notaries in the system. For many months Thawte employees undertook WOT Road Shows, where they issued 100 points to each person whose identity they validated. The Thawte employees physically established a person's identity by checking the person's original national photo identity document (such as a driver's license or passport) and then retaining a copy.

Once the person had received the 100 points, he / she could in turn become a Thawte notary, validating other people's identity. Thawte notaries were created in every city the Thawte Road Show visited, allowing the web to grow on its own once the road show left.

To join the Thawte WOT, you will need to have a Thawte Personal Certificate. You will also need to use your unique Thawte user ID and password to logon to the WOT pages on the Thawte web site.

The Thawte WOT allows Personal Certificate holders to upgrade their level of authentication. It does so through personal (one-on-one) identity validation.

Below is a Thawte WOT Certificate viewed in Netscape. It will look different in other browsers:

A Thawte notary is not a notary used in the legal sense of the word. To become a Thawte notary you don't need any formal qualifications. All you need is a Thawte Personal Certificate and you must have accumulated 100 WOT points.

When a WOT notary establishes the identity of a person, he / she issues that individual with a specified number of points. A Thawte WOT notary can issue between 10 and 35 points at a time, depending on experience. Notaries can only issue points to a particular person once and cannot issue points to themselves.

Once a Freemail member has obtained 50 WOT points, he / she will be able to request a new certificate. Instead of stating "Freemail member" in the distinguished name field, this new certificate will contain the member's name.

After obtaining 100 points, the member will automatically become a Thawte notary and will be able to issue WOT points. The number of points a notary can issue increases as he / she gains experience through issuing more points to others. The experience of a Thawte notary is established by the number of trust assertions he / she has made and works as follows:

New notary: 10 points
After 5 assertions: 15 points
After 10 assertions: 20 points
After 15 assertions: 25 points
After 25 assertions: 30 points
After 35 assertions: 35 points

A notary under the age of 21 will not be allowed to assign more than 10 WOT points.

It is important that Thawte notaries and members of the WOT follow clear guidelines and stick to certain rules to ensure the high level of assurance for the information in these certificates. If notaries and members do not follow these rules, they may be held liable if people suffer damages as a consequence.

The rules

	Personal appearance A notary may only assign WOT points to a member if he / she meets the member in person and views the originals of the member's identification documents. The member must provide the notary with copies of these identification documents.
	Identification documents and copies A notary must confirm the identity of the member by comparing the member's information stated in the Thawte Personal Certificate with the identification document/s presented by him / her. The notary must also ensure that the copies of the identification documents are true copies of the original documents. The member's identification documents must include at least one photo identity document. This photo identity document must be issued by a state or government body and must be nationally recognised as an acceptable form of identity. Photographs must bear a good likeness to the member. Please also look at the "Notarization Procedures" at https://www.thawte.com/html/COMMUNITY/wot/ttp.html for important notes regarding assurances. At least one of the identity documents provided must also contain the number used by the member in their Thawte user ID.
	Notaries must keep copies The notary must keep a copy of the identity documentation used to confirm the member's identity.
	Statement of Notarization The member and the notary must both sign a copy of the "Statement of Notarization" provided by Thawte during the identity assertion process. The notary must keep this signed statement on record for at least five years.
	Confidentiality Notaries may only disclose the information received from the member during the notarization process to Thawte and to no one else and must take reasonable steps to keep documentation confidential.
	Notary fees The Directory of Notaries provides a fee structure. Notaries may only charge these fees when doing an assertion.
	Liability A notary may be held responsible if he / she is unable to provide Thawte with copies of a member's identifying documentation on request. If a notary follows these rules and keeps copies of all documentation, Thawte will assume any liability arising from the assertions made by the notary.
	Notary WOT points Thawte may, at its sole discretion and at any time, change the number of WOT points a notary can assign. Should Thawte not change these points, a notary will be able to assign between 10 and 35 WOT points, based on the number of assertions that the notary has already made.

Remote authentication is possible for applicants who are not in the vicinity of Thawte notaries .For a fee of $25.00, Thawte allows applicants to get their identities validated by two of the following people (referees):

	A bank manager
	A registered lawyer
	A registered CPA (accountant)

Follow this step-by-step process for remote validation:

Step 1
Download a pdf format form from the Thawte web site and print four copies of this form.

Step 2
Take two of the copies of the form to each referee, along with the originals and photocopies of two of your national identity documents (passport and driver's license, for instance).

Step 3
The referees must complete both copies of the form in the presence of the applicant and sign both photocopies of the identity documentation. The applicant will keep one copy of the form and the referees are asked to keep the other copy for a maximum period of 31 days, or until Thawte has contacted them to verify that they really did sign the forms.

Step 4
The applicant must post a copy of the form, along with the signed photocopy of his/her photo identity to the Thawte Raleigh office (for US, Canadian and South American applicants), or to Thawte's South African office (for all other applicants).

Step 5
Thawte will verify the authenticity of the forms before issuing 100 WOT points to the applicant. Thawte will keep these forms on record for at least five years.

You'll find a step-by-step guide for this process, as well as the link to the relevant form at: https://www.thawte.com/html/COMMUNITY/wot/ttprules.html

	WOT homepage: http://www.thawte.com/html/COMMUNITY/wot/
	WOT FAQs: http://www.thawte.com/html/SUPPORT/wot/general.html