Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in an ongoing series of commentaries analyzing the individual Guiding Principles of the Notary Signing Agent Code of Conduct, released by the Signing Professionals Workgroup in October 2013.
Privacy and confidentiality are hot topics in the national news, spurred by revelations of government cellphone tapping, the latest data breaches involving consumer financial information and the release of intimate celebrity photos kept in supposedly-secure online storage systems. Even Notaries have made the news. The NNA recently ran a story about a signing agent who intentionally sold Social Security numbers from loan document packages to identity thieves.
Against this backdrop there is no more relevant provision in the Notary Signing Agent Code of Conduct than Guiding Principle 6 which reads: “The Notary Signing Agent will respect the privacy of each signer and protect closing documents from unauthorized disclosure.”
Surprisingly, most state Notary laws do not address the issues of privacy and confidentiality (see Wisconsin Statutes 137.01(5m) for the only statute of its kind). But as Code Standard 1.4 has made clear, Notary Signing Agents must obey federal consumer financial laws and regulations that apply to the services they perform with mortgage loans, particularly when they handle sensitive consumer financial and personal information.
Privacy vs. confidentiality
Guiding Principle 6 distinguishes between privacy and confidentiality. It attaches privacy to the person (“The Notary Signing Agent will respect the privacy of each signer …”) and confidentiality to documents (“The Notary Signing Agent will … protect closing documents from unauthorized disclosure”).
The Signing Agent must keep private the fact that a borrower has entered into and consummated a mortgage loan transaction. If the Signing Agent becomes aware of any personal matter that arises during a loan signing assignment — such a discussion between spouses — the Signing Agent must keep these private as well.
Protecting the loan documents
To ensure that Notary Signing Agents keep the non-public personal information (see Definition D.10) in the closing documents (see Definition D.5) in the strictest confidence, the individual standards in Guiding Principle 6 focus on the points that pose the greatest risks:
- Protecting access to secure computer networks;
- Protecting documents in a Signing Agent’s possession;
- Protecting the information of one signer from exposure to another signer; and
- Facilitating the hand-off of documents.
The first risk centers on accessing the closing documents. In today’s environment, Signing Agents must visit secure websites to download and print documents. The Code requires Signing Agents to use only protected networks (Standard 6.11). Signing Agents also must not share their logon credentials with others (Standard 6.10), nor may they have another person download and print documents (Standard 6.5). Signing Agents must delete any electronic copies of documents from their computers at the conclusion of an assignment (6.13).
The second risk is addressed by the general security protocol for protecting documents while they are in the possession of the Signing Agent (Standard 6.7). Apart from that, a Signing Agent generally is prohibited from sending closing documents directly to the signer (Standard 6.8). When the Signing Agent transmits documents or non-public personal information to a contracting company or closing agent, he or she must use encryption, strong passwords or other secure delivery methods (Standard 6.12).
The third risk comes into play at the signing table. The Notary Signing Agent must take reasonable steps to protect previous signers by preventing the current signers from viewing completed entries in the Signing Agent’s Notary journal (6.2).
Facilitating the hand-off of documents
A final vulnerability is the hand-off of the closing documents. If a Notary Signing Agent must receive a physical closing package via overnight carrier, the Signing Agent will make a reasonable attempt to receive the package in person (Standard 6.4). After the signing, the Signing Agent will reasonably attempt to deliver all packages in person or via secure means, and check to ensure that upon delivery the package is properly sealed (6.6).
In closing, while Notary Signing Agents can distinguish themselves by carefully handling customer information, the current headlines prove that society in general and contracting companies in particular have a zero tolerance when this information is mishandled.
Bill Anderson is Vice President of Government Affairs with the National Notary Association.
For a better understanding of the new Signing Agent code, read other commentaries in this series of articles.
Notary Signing Agent Code of Conduct: Guiding Principle 1
Notary Signing Agent Code of Conduct: Guiding Principle 2
Notary Signing Agent Code of Conduct: Guiding Principle 3
Notary Signing Agent Code of Conduct: Guiding Principle 4
Notary Signing Agent Code of Conduct: Guiding Principle 5