44 6.3.12 The South African Electronic Communications and Transactions Act regulates cryptography providers. A Cryptography Service is expected to register its name with the Director-General of the Department of Communications, who also acts as the Accreditation Authority. Accreditation in this context means recognition of an authentication product or services designed to identify the holder of an electronic signature to other persons. Accreditation is voluntary. The Accreditation Authority has the power to monitor through “cyber inspectors” the conduct, systems and operations of the authentication service provider to ensure that it complies with the Act. The Minister of Communications, by notice in the Government Gazette, may recognise the accreditation granted to any authentication service provider in any foreign jurisdiction. The Act sets out criteria for recognition (e.g., financial stability, quality of hardware and software systems, independent audits). 6.3.13 The American Bar Association Section on Science and Technology issued Digital Signature Guidelines: Legal Infrastructure for Certification Authorities and Secure Electronic Commerce in 1996. To provide some consistency in interstate commerce, the United States Government passed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (the E-SIGN law).40 The law is technology neutral so parties can choose the system they want to use to validate an on-line agreement. It does not apply to certain transactions or agreements, such as the creation and execution of wills, adoptions, divorces, notices of cancellation of utility services, repossession or foreclosure of mortgages or termination of health or life insurance benefits. 6.3.14 In Canada, the government issued Principles for Electronic Authentication in 2003.41 These principles are also intended to be technologically neutral and emphasise proportionality (i.e., the degree of responsibility and risk that each participant in the authentication process assumes should be in proportion to the degree of knowledge and control that the participant can reasonably be expected to have), data privacy, and international compatibility. The Canadian Government took the 40 Public Law No. 106-229, 114 Stat. 464 (2001); see, United States Government, Office of Management and Budget, Guidance on Implementing the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN), relating to federal agencies. See also, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Electronic Signatures: A Review of the Exceptions to the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, June 2003 www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/frnotices/2002/esign/report2003/coverack.htm 41 See also, Industry Canada, Task Force on Electronic Commerce, A Cryptography Policy Framework for Electronic Commerce: Building Canada’s Information Economy and Society, February 1998 www.strategis.gc.ca