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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION (ED)

The United States Department of Education is the agency of the federal government that establishes policy for, administers, and coordinates most federal assistance to education. As of early 2002, the U.S. Department of Education has about 4,800 employees and a budget of $54.5 billion. In fulfilling the purposes described by Congress, the Department engages in four major types of activities:

• Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as monitoring those funds.
• Collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research.
• Focusing national attention on key educational issues.
• Prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.

The United States Department of Education is regulated by the Code of Federal Regulations (34 CFR).

US Department of Education - 34 CFR 99.30 (revised April 21, 2004) discusses the "Administrative practice and procedure, Education, Information,Parents, Privacy, Records, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Students."

Definitions:

(d) ``Signed and dated written consent'' under this part may include a record and signature in electronic form that--

(1) Identifies and authenticates a particular person as the source of the electronic consent; and
(2) Indicates such person's approval of the information contained in the electronic consent.

During the summer of 2001, US Department of Education published the Standards For Electronic Signautres In Electronic Student Loan Transactions. The purpose was to establish standards regarding the implementation and use of electronic signatures in connection with the E-SIGN Act of 2000. While the E-SIGN Act applies to ALL transactions, this document focussed on loan transactions that require a borrower’s signature and related records.

PrivaSign meets the definitions given in Section 1 Definitions in reference to electronic signatures:

Electronic Record means a record created, generated, sent, communicated, received, and/or stored by electronic means.
Electronic Signature means an electronic symbol or process attached to, or logically associated with, a record and used by a person with the intent to sign the record.

Section 2: Borrower Consent and Disclosure

Before a lender or holder may conduct an electronic transaction that requires information to be provided or made available in writing to a borrower, the borrower must affirmatively consent to use an electronic record (Section 101(c) of the E-Sign Act). The borrower’s consent must be voluntary and based on accurate information about the transaction to be completed.

2.2 Manner of Consent the borrower must also consent electronically in a manner that demonstrates that he or she has the capability to receive electronic communications from the lender or holder (Section 101(c)(1)(C) of the E-Sign Act).

Section 2.3 discussees the topic of "Required Disclosures" a few of these include - (f) procedure for obtaining paper copies of electronic records - (g) the hardware and soft are requirements - (a) any right or option he or she has to conduct the transaction on paper

PrivaSign provides a multi-step approach to “Consumer Disclosure”. First, by providing a text area in the message to the recipient the sender can disclose all relevant information regarding the specific transaction. PrivaSign provides a second disclosure notification when the recipient clicks the "Sign It" button. Once again Full disclosure can be given as pertains to this specific transaction. Acknowledgement of this disclosure is captured as proof that the consumer was informed, and did accept to use an electronic process.

Section 3 Electronic Signatures describes the "Processes that may be used as electronic signatures for executing electronic promissory notes and signing electronic documents for covered transactions".

PrivaSign meets the requirements as defined by:

(b) A unique credential or token provided to the borrower by a trusted third party, such as a public-private keypair, a cryptographic smartcard, or a one-time password device;

PrivaSign meets the guidelines of Section 3.6 Intent to Sign an Electronic Record by visually isolating each file to be signed with the method of signing the file. PrivaSign also complies by "Providing notice to the borrower that his or her electronic signature is about to be applied" through a confirmation box that confirms the intent to sign prior to the actual signature capture.

PrivaSign complies with section 3.7 Establishing the Purpose for the Signature by allowing the borrower to meet ALL THREE of the following requirements:

(a) Apparent within the context of the transaction;
(b) Described to the borrower in the electronic record itself; or
(c) Described in a separate notice, explanation, or statement provided to the borrower at or before the time of signing.

4.1 Printing and Viewing - "The lender or holder must enable the viewing or printing of electronic records using commonly available operating systems and software." The PrivaSign service is available to anyone with internet access and an email address. It works on virtually every operating system and web browser. This allows PrivaSign to truly be available to all. PrivaSign stores all files for a minimum of 3 months, the sender may pay for additional storage. During the 3 months both sender and recipient may download the file so that they may be in compliance with any applicable laws. This downloaded file can be saved to their computer, saved to a portable medium (CD, DVD or others) or even printed to paper. PrivaSign captures file integrity hashes so that all parties can verify the integrity of saved files.

Section 5 Integrity of Electronic Records - "The lender or holder must ensure that electronic records signed by the borrower have not been altered." PrivaSign uses File Integrity Hashes that can be used by all parties to the electronic record to verify that no changes or errors have occurred.