Today, Tuesday, March 8^th, we officially launch Tractis in Brazil.

The current status in Brazil

As you can see in Tractis Brazil webpage, the country has already passed electronic signature legislation. With the coming in force of Medida provisória 2.200-2, of August 24^th, 2001, any document signed with an electronic certificate from any of the Certification Authorities being part of the Brazilian Public Key Infrastructure (ICP-Brasil, see below) is presumed authentic.

In contrast to the large majority of countries, Brazil has adopted a single root national certification system. Thus, the Brazilian Government becomes the “Root Certification Authority” (Root CA) accrediting, supervising and auditing all the rest of Certification Authorities affiliated with them.

The main official bodies in the system are:

• The National Institute for Information Technology (ITI) operates under the rules established by a management committee (ICP-Brazil Management Committee) to maintain and audit the Brazilian Public Key Infrastructure (ICP-Brazil). The ITI is a federal agency within the Brazilian Government (Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic).
• The ICP-Brazil Management Committee drafts and approves the rules under which the ICP-Brazil operates, including the certifications policies, technical standards and operating standards.  Its members are appointed by the President of the Republic himself.
• The ICP-Brazil implements the rules approved by the ICP-Brazil Management Committee. ICP-Brazil occupies the first rank of the certification chain in the Brazilian market, the root CA, and, as such, it is incumbent upon them to issue, grant, distribute, revoke and administer the certificates of certification authorities below them.

These lower level Certification authorities under ICP-Brazil are:

1. AC-Serpro
2. AC-Caixa
3. AC-Serasa
4. AC-RFB
5. AC-Certisign
6. AC-Imprensa Oficial do Estado de São Paulo
7. AC-JUS
8. AC-PR
9. Casa da Moneda do Brasil

Support to Serasa Experian

We have started by supporting the electronic certificates issued by AC-Serasa, the Certification Authority owned by Serasa-Experian. To give some background, Serasa-Experian is a company belonging to the Experian group, one of the biggest credit risk and marketing information providers for businesses worldwide.

AC-Serasa provides electronic certificates to individuals (natural person), corporations (legal entities) and equipment (e.g.: servers). In this first integration we have focused on the certificates for individuals:

• eCPF A1: Certificates with private key generated and stored in software (a file in your computer). We have given a Tractis Score 3 (Substancial Assurance Level) to these.
• eCPF A3: Certificates with private key generated and stored in hardware (a USB device or a card separate from your computer). To these we have asigned a  Tractis Score 4 (High Assurance Level).

For these certificates AC Serasa acts as an intermediate certification authority between the Brazilian Tax Authority (Receita Federal do Brasil) and the final user. In other words, To obtain any CPF (“Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas”) certificate it is also necessary to have a registration with  the Brazilian Tax Authority. The hierarchy is as follows:

• ICP-Brazil (Root Certification Authority).
  • AC RFB (Brazilian Tax Authority Certification Authority).
    • AC Serasa RFB (Serasa-Experian Certification Authority).
      • Final user.

At present, the RFB hierarchy represents between 60 and 70% of all electronic certificates from ICP-Brazil, which makes them the ideal candidate to start supporting their certificates.

Expanding internationally: With your help

After launching in Spain, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Portugal, Chile, Slovenia, Dominican Republic, India, Colombia, Austria, Switzerland and Uruguay, Brazil becomes the fourteenth  country where we enable electronic certificate signatures.

With today announcement, Tractis supports 74 certificate profiles from 32 certification authorities in 14 different countries. By the day more and more people can transact their businesses 100% on-line, securely and with full legal validity, regardless of the country they are in, their certificate or the computer operating system they are using.

Would you like to help us make Tractis available in your country? Ask for the incorporation of your certificate to Tractis. It is free, does not require registration and only takes 30 seconds. With the information you provide us we will incorporate your certificate to the list certificates supported by Tractis.

As of today, Tractis supports the “Recognized Personal Certificate” issued by Signe AC, a company in the Signe AC group, and a Certification Authority focusing its activity on the issuing of electronic certificates in the academic world.

Signe AC services are oriented to graduates, students that have completed their courses of study and want to accredit that by means of an electronic degree, as well as to public and public corporations.

Through their eDegree solution, Signe AC issues electronically signed digital academic degrees that giving the same guarantee as printed academic degrees. To date several Spanish universities have joined the eDegree Project.

As those of you following this blog know already, one of Tractis objectives is to integrate with all the Certification Authorities in the world. As of the writing of these lines Tractis supports 72 certificate profiles from 31 Certification Authorities in 13 countries. Should you represent a Certification Authority and would like that your certificates could be used in Tractis, please, write us an email.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

- Arthur C. Clarke‘s Third Law (1973).

We start 2012 with some big news. We are very happy to announce that “Tu“, the mobile virtual network operator owned by the Tuenti social network, has chosen Tractis as their platform to verify their clients identity.

A bit of background for those not quite up to speed: with some 8 million active user and 40 billion page views per month, Spanish Tuenti is one of the largest social networks in the world. They have the have the highest per user average (7.63 hours vs. 4.29 for Facebook) and the site with the heaviest traffic in Spain (15% of the web traffic).

Tu, Tuenti’s mobile phone operator

In the last year Tuenti has been developing the beta version of “Tu”, their mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that runs on the Movistar network. In these last years, a number of MVNOs have started operating in Spain, nevertheless, due to its special relationship with Tuenti, Tu enjoys clearly differentiated social features, services and positioning.

Its launch was accompanied by aggressive fees, free calls and SMSs between Tu and Tu users and free navigation on Tuenti from cell phones. This last Christmas they carried out a bold marketing coup with their “Smartphones for all“ campaign, selling the ZTE Racer II smartphone, the least expensive  Android on the market, for just 59 €, on a prepayment basis and no term length requirements.

Why is there a need to verify the identity of prepayment customers?

Since November 9^th 2007, mobile phone operators in Spain are required to verify the identity of their clients acquiring prepaid cards. For this, individual customers must present their DNI (National ID card), passport or foreign resident ID, and businesses have to show their tax number ID. Large phone operators, such as Telefonica, Vodafone or Orange, use their large network of retail stores to do this in person. But, what about the MVNOs that do not have physical stores?

Up to now, they have made it using scanned documents or, alternatively, resorting to express couriers as their form of verifying identities. The courier has instructions to ask the receiver for the ID documents and, only after checking them, deliver the SIM card package.

Nevertheless, these solutions entail several problems:

1. The identity verification system is no trustworthy: Presenting a photocopy of a credential is not as secure as producing the actual credential. The former is clearly easier to tamper with. And in the case of deliveries it is a known fact that the degree of compliance with the verification requirements varies a lot, not only among couriers, but among employees within a courier.
2. Enormous limitations in selling possibilities: Sending prepaid cards by courier is just one of many sale scenarios. There are many more where it makes perfect sense to offer prepaid cards on a display stand, let the customers pick them up and pay for them on their way out, just like any other product, without further ado or paperwork. Until now this was out of the reach of MVNOs without a physical retail network, of their own or in partnership.

The identity verification process with Tractis, step by step

Tu is the first MVNO in Spain to use the DNIe as a device to verify the identity of their SIM card customers. From the customer point of view, these are the steps to follow:

1. Acquire a Tu prepaid card in their virtual store or in any other store, let’s say, a Vips retail store.
2. Visit tuenti.com/activatusim and introduce your card code.
3. Use your DNIe to verify your identity and activate the card.

As simple as that. You do not need to install the DNIe drivers and, if you do not have a reader, we send you one from Tractis to your home within 24 hours at a very keen price. After the launch of the beta version and the appropriate test period, both Tuenti and Tractis are very satisfied with the results and excited about the coming new use cases, improvements and applications.

Pioneers in real identity

In many appearances Tuenti has pointed out, on a continued basis, their objective of becoming the social media platform where privacy, real identity, trust, conversations and relevant content are paramount.

With this move Tuenti advances another step in their strategy, gives proof of their firm commitment to use reliable systems when it comes to comply with current legislation, shows the intelligence to take advantage of the powerful infrastructure in place (over 25 million DNIe and growing at a rate of 6 million more per year) and, like a business judoka, transforms a MVNO weakness (lack of a retail sales network) into an efficiency and cost advantage with respect to more traditional competitors.

We hope that many other phone operators will walk down the road that Tuenti has just opened.

—

Update 2012.01.25: Among other, the following media have reported this news: El Economista, Cinco días, El Mundo, La Razón, La Información, 20 Minutos, eitb, El Periódico, El Norte de Castilla, La Voz de Galicia, La Voz de Valencia, Diario de Navarra, El Digital de Madrid, Ideal, ElReferente, EuropaPress, RRHH Press, Periodista Digital, PCActual, MuyComputerPRO, Xataka, Genbeta, GenbetaDev, Menéame, FayerWayer, Visual Beta, Microlópez, TechWeekEurope, finanzas.com, Cotizalia, Telecinco, Antena 3, Terra, Dirigentes, Weborama, Trece Bits, EnlaceGeek, TodoStartUps, Iberestudios, El Experto Digital, La Voz Libre, El periódico de la publicidad, Revista Facturación Electrónica, Obvio,  El Grupo Informático, MarketingNews, Seetio, Generaccion.com, Agencia Manada, Mas que redes, Hábeas Data, Segu-Info, Forocoches, messenger.es, Tecnología21, TecnoZone, Tech.Cero, Tecnologyc, Globedia, brainhardware, Sigher, Blocly, Árbol de noticias, benjalink, OMV, Protección de datos en Andalucía, geekuu, Oh! Tech, Netcomshop, ArgoRED, NEWS PCS asycom, AENTA, noticiasynoticias, sixpads, todomdp, dgtalnws, Zona Internet, redticos, EmpresasyMercados, Vlimix, DigitalDomain, Tecnopcx, zebramedia, Código Zero, fulltono, ORSI, blogfree, ceroblog, gentedigital, boxbaster, tecnorevista, Lo mejor de cada casa, Noticias tecnológicas, eprodisa, Guía de Internet, CanalBlog, NoticiasDot, o24n, ZonaTotal, CucoAlmería, inkawebdesign, TecnoDerecho, TopFormación, itnoticias, Los Pequez, GooglePlusAdictos,  TuentiAdictos, ¿Qué es Tuenti?, El Mundo Tuenti y muchos más.

Our first shareholder letter, in 1997, was entitled, “It’s all about the long term.” If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue. At Amazon we like things to work in five to seven years. We’re willing to plant seeds, let them grow—and we’re very stubborn. We say we’re stubborn on vision and flexible on details.

In some cases, things are inevitable. The hard part is that you don’t know how long it might take, but you know it will happen if you’re patient enough. Ebooks had to happen. Infrastructure web services had to happen. So you can do these things with conviction if you are long-term-oriented and patient.

- Jeff Bezos. Interview in Wired Magazine (2011).

As announced a month ago, as of today, Thursday, December 8th 2011, Tractis new Terms of Use have become effective.

Next time you start a session in Tractis a new window will come up asking you to accept the new Terms to continue using Tractis services.

For any questions, doubts or comments on the new Tractis Terms of Use, please, do not hesitate to contact us.

The whole team is very proud to announce the official launch of “Tractis ProBono“, a Tractis initiative to promote the use of electronic certificates for political initiatives.

Tractis ProBono is geared to any not for profit movement or initiative wishing to  use the full spectrum of Tractis services for free, as well as acquiring smart card readers at heavily discounted prices or, soon, completely free.

Our definition of “movement or political initiative” is quite wide and includes any not for profit project aiming to bring about some change in society. This goes from signature gathering platforms for PLIs (Popular Legislative Initiative, EU Law), such as MiFirma, to services to improve your city, like Ziudad, electronic voting systems, like Kuestion, political parties, citizens movements or associations promoting citizen participation.

Rights and duties

You can read the full text regulating Tractis ProBono use terms.

The main rights (benefits) are the use of all Tractis services at zero cost and the possibility of buying smart card readers with heavy discounts or, even, for free.

The main obligations as a participant in Tractis ProBono are to comply with Tractis Attribution Policy and give permission to Tractis to use the initiative name as a reference.

Enrollment

If you are part of a movement or a political initiative and wish to make use of Tractis ProBono, the procedure is quite simple. To enroll, the legal representative of your initiative has to fill out and sign electronically the “Tractis ProBono Application”.

Once this request has been reviewed and made sure it meets the acceptance criteria, we at Tractis will sign electronically the document, thereby becoming binding for both parties.

Free services

The initiatives under Tractis ProBono can use all Tractis services at zero cost, both front-end services (identity verification, electronic signature) and back-end (AA, SVA, TSA, LTA).

The definition of Tractis services able to be used for free excludes expressly all fees that third party Certification Authorities may apply to Tractis. In these cases (i.e.: FNMT) the initiative will be free to decide whether they want to take these charges on themselves and be able to fully validate the certificates from such Authorities or, alternatively, use only those Certification Authorities whose access is free and open (practically all).

In contrast with the rest of Tractis users, the political initiatives accepted under Tractis ProBono are not subject to  Tractis reasonable use policy, and can make use of Tractis free services without limitation.

Discounts on readers

Just as many of you think, we believe that, in order to succeed, any political initiative relying on electronic certification services needs to have a clear strategy for massive distribution of readers at low cost or free.

Political initiatives accepted under Tractis ProBono can acquire readers at heavily discounted prices or, eventually, get them for free in the near future thanks to a number of campaigns that we are working on. The discounted prices for the Tractis Slim Reader are:

• Delivered to multiple addresses. Express delivery, 24-48 hours. Delivery costs paid by Tractis: 11.99 €.
• Delivered to a single address. Carrier delivered in bulk. Delivery costs paid by the initiative: 5.99 € (10 units minimum).

Customized readers

Gladly implementing requests from several political initiatives that have been collaborating with us, participants in Tractis ProBono can customize their reader package by adding contents of their own. Some ideas for additional content are: leaflets, stickers, USB key rings, smart cards… The costs of customization are:

• Add or stick an external object to the outside of the reader box: 0.00 € for the first object added.
• Insert an object in the reader box: 0.50 € for the first object inserted.
• Add, stick or insert more than one object: 0.05 € per object after the first one.

Each initiative has to take responsibility (and assume the cost) of designing, producing and delivering their content to the processing center chosen by Tractis. Tractis shall not take part in these activities in any way.

Our logistic suppliers operate with a level of automation that permits that the type of object, whether generic or custom (i.e.: a letter or a smart card with a given certificate that has to be delivered to a concrete person), has no effect on the per package price.

Migration of existing collaborations

As those political initiatives we have been collaborating with before the official launch of Tractis ProBono know well, we have been providing our services free of charge without having some formal document defining the mutual understanding. Should this be your case, we ask you to enroll formally now in Tractis ProBono by submitting a complete application form.

We have established a 30 day period to formalize these existing relationships. As of January, 1^st, 2011, all those Accounts not having submitted a complete application shall revert to ordinary fess. There is no need to say that you can always apply to Tractis ProBono at a later date, but given the cost on us of this kind of pro bono initiatives, we ask for your greatest collaboration at this time to achieve the smoothest migration for both parties.

Campaign planning

If your political initiative is not using currently Tractis free services and you would like to make use of them, we ask you not to wait until the last minute and submit your application as soon as you can. Only that way we are able to determine the configurations and integrations needed, dimension the capacity, identify contacts and exchange useful information with the lead time required. Acting this way both parties will be prepared and your campaign success shall not be impeded by lack of planning or last minute rushes.

Likewise, if you are considering taking advantage of the discounts to acquire readers, we recommend you that you do it as soon as your decision is firm. Depending on our stock at hand at the time it might be necessary to place new orders and these have supply times of around 2 months (manufacturing and delivery).

Comments welcomed

In writing Tractis ProBono terms we have tried to use plain, clear and accessible language, avoiding unnecessary legalese, to facilitate reading and understanding.

These use terms are evolving all the time and your feedback is more than welcomed. We encourage you to share with us your interests and suggestions to improve them. You can do this in the Comments section of the form.

What we’re dealing with  here is a complete lack of respect for the law.

- Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Smokey and the Bandit (1977).

We are happy to announce the opening of  Tractis Store, our official store and our first incursion in the world of hardware.

Tractis Store is the first piece of “Tractis Hardware”, a new family of Tractis services aimed at facilitating the massive deployment of low cost smart card readers in all the countries we operate in.

Our vision: unbeatable delivery time and prices.

Tractis Store has been created with a single objective: becoming the best website to obtain smart card readers in record time and at extremely keen prices.

When we set ourselves about creating our own on-line reader store, our users identified “fast” and “inexpensive” as the most valued attributes of all, and, therefore, the ones we should concentrate on.

To that end, we have put considerable time and effort in the recent months to refine, optimize and test each link in the supply chain to achieve the best combination of delivery period and prices.

The problem: “¡Interesting! But not just yet…“

Many persons still do not have a reader. When people consider acquiring one, it is usually because they need to perform some kind of procedure where the options are completing it in seconds using their e-ID was founded in 1948.
(electronic ID), or by going through some tedious formalities in person. In other words, what triggers the decision/wish to purchase is the time savings.

Regrettably, today almost all reader sellers optimize only the price, at the expense of the delivery period and other factors, or their volume of reader sales is so low that they do not even try to optimize anything, or their charges for an express delivery are outrageous (6-9 €).

When faced with a delivery delay of 6 or more days for a matter that is eminently time sensitive, most people give up acquiring the reader and chose to do it in person. A never ending, recurring and inefficient “Interesting! I’ll do it some day” that never gets done.

Tractis Store means to put an end to this situation.

Tratis Slim Reader: all the power of your e-ID in an exceptional design

Our first reader model is the “Tractis Slim Reader” a smart card reader with:

• An exceptional design: extremely thin and light, just 6.9 millimeter thick and weighting only 35 grams.
• Full compatibility: supports all operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux) and browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome).
• Multi-certificate support: works with all electronic card based certificates supported by Tractis, Spanish DNIe included.
• Top reliability: a minimum of 100,000 insertions (uses) and a tested failure rate below 0.07%.

Free delivery

All the products in the Tractis Store include free express courier delivery.

Delivered in 24-48 hours

All the products in the Tractis Store are delivered within 24-28 hours.

Even if the delivery period is stated as up to 48 hours, our objective is to deliver the next day all orders received before 16:00. Orders placed after 16:00 will ship the following day and, thus, delivered within 48 hours.

Extremely low prices

You may get your Tractis Slim Reader for 19.99 €. This price includes VAT and delivery costs by express courier within 24-48 hours.

You may find cheaper readers in the market but once you add taxes, delivery charges, delivery time, real time delivery tracking, quality, design, features and compatibility we are convinced that we have an extremely keen price and a price-quality combination simply unique in today’s market.

An integrated buying experience

Tractis Store is fully integrated with the Tractis platform. When you go to your Account you will find a new tab called “Orders” that gives you a unified interface to check the status of all your Tractis orders, whether they be credit purchases, monthly subscription plans, credit packs or smart card readers.

On-line and real time  order tracking

Tractis Store is integrated through web services to all our logistic suppliers; this allows you to track your order status in real time. Every move in warehouse or in transport is instantaneously updated on your order details.

Questions?

When visiting Tractis Help, you will see a nes and complete help section dedicated to Tractis Store where you can solve any doubt about:

• Placing an order
• Tracking an order status
• Shipment and delivery
• Invoices and VAT
• Technical support and guarantee
• Returns and refunds
• Security and purchase experience

If you have been considering buying a e-ID reader for some time, now is the time.

Buy your reader at the Tractis Store for only 19,99 €, VAT included, free express delivery within 24-48 hours.

On December, 8^th, 2011, Tractis new “Terms of Use” will become effective. We want to give you 30 days advance notice of the impending change, so you have ample time to review the new Terms.

Why this change?

Current “Tractis Terms of Use” have been in force since March 2008. In the past twelve to eighteen months many changes have taken place that have to be accommodated for. Among other, new services, functionalities, supported certificates, consumption modes, billing, use cases, service provision reorganizations, user feedback and the coming launch of new services.

Why 30 days notice?

Paragraph 1.2 of currently in force “Tractis Terms of Use” states that:

When an update of these Terms shall involve a substantial change of the same, you shall be notified at least 30 (thirty) days in advance by publishing a notice on your Activity Summary page (https://www.tractis.com/dashboard) in Tractis. If, in addition, you would like receive an email advising you of a Substantial Change, you can subscribe to this option on the Alerts preferences (https://www.tractis.com/alerts) of your Account.

Paragraph 1.2 defines a Substantial Change as:

A change in the Terms of Use that diminishes your rights or increases your responsibilities.

We do not consider that the new terms that we announce today diminish your rights or increase your responsibilities as users. Quite to the contrary, in fact. As mentioned above, we think they give you greater flexibility and more options, services, functionalities, consumption modes, etc. Notwithstanding this, the changes in the text are so extensive (almost a complete rewrite) that we have decided to treat them as a Substantial Change.

How will the change take place?

The current Tractis Terms of Use will be applicable until the new ones become effective on December 8^th.

As stated in the Terms of Use, we have sent an email to all those persons that had indicated in their Alerts Preferences that they want to be informed of changes in the terms of use, and we have included the following notice in the Activity Summary page of all Tractis users:

Furthermore, we decided to announce the change also in our blog (this post that you are reading), in our Twitter and, coming the 8^th of December, we shall display to all users as they open a session on Tractis a page informing them of the coming in force of the new Terms and requesting their acceptance as a prerequisite to continue using Tractis services.

Should you have any questions or comments on the new Tractis Terms of Use, or their process for becoming effective, please, do not hesitate to inform us. You may leave a public comment on this post, in the comments to the new Terms section, or send a private email to info@tractis.com

Remember: December 8^th…