Arbitrations/a20100907.1

Case Number: a20100907.1
Status: closed
Claimants: <anonymized>
Respondents: CAcert
Initial Case Manager: UlrichSchroeter
Case Manager: MartinGummi
Arbitrator: BernhardFröhlich
Date of arbitration start: 2010-09-09
Date of (first) ruling: 2011-01-04
Date of second ruling: 2011-07-24
Case closed: 2011-10-17
Complaint: letter of resignation
Relief: TBD

Before: Arbitrator BernhardFröhlich (A), Respondent: CAcert (R), Claimant: <anonymized> (C), Case: a20100907.1

History Log

2010-09-08 (issue.c.o) case [s20100908.5]
2010-09-08 (iCM): added to wiki, request for CM / A
2010-09-09 (A): I'll take care about this case
2010-09-09 (CM): I'll take care about this case
2010-09-09 (A): init mailing sent to (C)
2010-09-09 (A): Requested list of given Assurances from C's account
2010-09-09 Support returns list of 14 given Assurances
2010-09-10 C replies to initial mail but refuses any further cooperation with CAcert.
2010-09-13 (A): Sent another mail to (C), trying to calm down the situation.
2010-12-07 (A): Preliminary ruling given

Discovery

C has made 14 Assurances
C did not respond to second request within two months.
The most recent Assurance made by the Account was at 2010-03-27
All certificates issued by the Account are already revoked.

After restarting investigation phase

C claims that he has no CAP forms in his posession.
Several Assurers confirm that they posess CAP forms signed by C that include the agreement to the CCA.
Link to Private Part

Reasoning

The Claimant has made clear that he wants to terminate his relations with CAcert as soon as possible, but he refuses further cooperation. The job of this Arbitration is to determine how this request can be satisfied without hurting the mission of CAcert too much.

Deleting the Claimant's data now, without access to the CAP forms, would completely prevent CAcert to verify the 14 Assurances made. So those Assurances would have to be revoked, which would probably result in several Assurees to fall below their intended level of Assurance.

Every standard CAP form includes the statement that, once signed, it has to be kept for seven years and that it has to be delivered to CAcert in case of demand. The Claimant's refusal to deliver the CAP forms explicitly breaks this agreement.

Also the Claimant's refusal to cooperate violates paragraph 3.2. of the CAcert Community Agreement.

Though there are ways to delete the Claimant's data from the main database and store them offline (on printed paper), this puts additional stress on the safekeeper of that paper and hinders the process of arbitrations involving the Assurances made by the Claimant.

Keeping the data in the database (in comparison to offline storage) does not lead to specific disadvantages for the Claimant which would outweigh the additional stress on CAcert and its members.

From reliable statements of multiple CAcert Assurers it can be concluded that the Claimant has accepted the CCA.

Ruling

Preliminary Ruling

Since the Claimant wants to terminate his account support is hereby authorized to hijack his account.
For further processing support is requested to provide the following information:
- The number of Assurances made by the Claimant (for confirmation)
- The date when the most recent Assurance was made by the Claimant
- Number of issued certificates and date of last certificate expiring.
Login to the account should be disabled.

Final Ruling

Following the reasoning outlined above I give the following ruling:

The Claimant's personal data may not be deleted from the main database before 2017-03-27 (seven years after his last Assurance) unless he submits his CAP forms.
The Claimant is not released from the CCA before 2017-03-27, especially he shall notify support@c.o if his mail adress changes.
The Claimant's account shall be linked to this Arbitration page by setting an unused part of the name recorded in his account (suffix or miffle name) to the case number of this Arbitration.
If the Claimant does not request continuation of his account, his account shall be deleted by support within a one month period after 2017-03-27.

Additional second ruling after extended investigation

The statement of the Claimant that he has no contractual relation to CAcert is in contrary to reliable statements of several CAcert Assurers. To preserve evidence the Assurers are ordered to keep their CAP forms of the Claimant till 2017-03-27, regardless of the date the CAP forms were signed.
The Claimant states that he has no CAP forms in his posession of the Assurances made by his account. This is a violation of the Assurer's Obligations laid down in CACert's Assurance Policy. If the Claimant continues to refuse any cooperation with CAcert, CAcert is hereby authorised to take legal actions against the Claimant before a regular court because of the violation of the CCA and the Assurance Policy.
This case may be reopened by the Claimant if he accepts cooperation with CAcert in the future.

Follow up ruling

Since the Assurances made by C are no longer verifiable they shall be revoked.

Execution

2010-12-07 (A): Sent mail to support requesting execution of preliminary ruling
2010-12-10 Support reports: 14 Assurances, most recent Assurance at 2010-03-27, all certificates are already revoked, account is set to "blocked".
2011-01-04 (A): Sent mail to support requesting execution of final ruling
2011-01-04 (A): Sent mail to Claimant notifying him of the ruling.
2011-01-04 Support confirms execution of ruling.
2011-01-05 Claimant requests german translation of ruling.
2011-01-07 (A): Sent short summary of ruling and reasoning, announced full translation till Jan 10.
2011-01-07 C replies, refuses to accept any contractual relations with CAcert and accuses the Arbitrator of coercion. He claims that he has no CAP forms in his posession.
2011-01-10 (A): This case is switched back to investigation phase, due to the claims and statements made by the Claimant.
2011-01-10 (A): Sent german translation of ruling. Included an explanation of the legal foundations of CAcert Arbitration as well as several questions about things which usually are taken for granted when talking with an Assurer.
2011-01-18 (A): Sent request to support about who has assured C
2011-01-19 Support sends the list of Assurances
2011-04-08 (A): Sent request to Assurers to confirm that C has signed the CCA
2011-04-20 (A): Till this time 7 Assurers have replied with a reliable statement that they have a CAP form including CCA agreement, signed by the Claimant, in their posession. Five of them state that the Assurance was made during the ATE Munich in 2009.
2011-07-24 (A): Second ruling given
2011-07-24 (A): Send notification of the ruling to Assurers that have assured the Claimant.
2011-09-02 (A): Sent a notification to members assured by C that C's assurances may be revoked soon.
2011-09-30 (A): Follow up ruling given
2011-09-30 (A): Sent mail to support, asking them to revoke all Assurances given by C's account
2011-09-30 Support reports that the Assurances have been revoked.
2011-10-04 (A): Sent a mail to members who may have lost Assurance Points.
2011-10-17 (A): The case is closed now.

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