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Who can join the Haka Identity Federation as a member or partner?

Universities, universities of applied sciences, state and publicly-owned research institutions, and other organizations supporting research and education may be admitted to the Federation as Members as specified, in detail, in Appendix 2 to the Service Agreement.

The Federation may be joined under this Service Agreement as Partners by Service Providers that provide services to the End Users of the Members described above.

A Member may function in the Federation as both a Home Organization and Service Provider.

A Partner may function in the Federation as a Service Provider.

How can various parties join the Haka Identity Federation?

Service Providers can apply for membership in Haka by completing the electronic application form at https://rr.funet.fi/partners/

Organisations that wish to register their Identity Provider with the Haka Identity Federation should complete the Haka membership form and return it to CSC to the Haka Agreements postal address.

The Haka steering group will process all membership and partner applications sent to the Haka Operator and make the final decision on accepting new organisations, very often within a few days. In the event of a delay, any questions on the status of processing of the application be sent to haka@csc.fi

Why is the Haka Agreement being reformed?

The first Haka Identity Federation membership agreement has been in use since the last decade. Updating the Agreement is necessary due to, e.g., the EU’s General Data Processing Regulation (GDPR) and the development of international federations (such as compliance with the Data Protection Code of Conduct and the transfer of personal data outside the EU.

What are the key changes between the new agreement and the old one?

The new Service Agreement is not an attempt to influence the operating method of the Haka Identity Federation; instead, it aims to take into consideration the reformed operating environment with data protection practices and to specify the agreement to the extent deemed necessary. The new agreement also commits members and partners to the contract terms in direct relation to one another, and creates a framework according to which the members and partners can order additional services from the operator.

Who have participated in the planning of the new agreement?

The new agreement has been worked on for a long time and various parties have been consulted, such as the Haka Identity Federation, a few university lawyers, and authors of the original agreement. It should be noted that agreements concerning federations are challenging by nature and, although universities have different roles and practices, the agreement must be identical for all members of the federation.

When must the new agreement be signed, at the latest?

The new agreement must be signed by 15 November 2019 if you want to ensure that you will remain a member of the Haka Identity Federation. In a seamless contract transfer, old services, the Haka metadata, and the contact persons will remain unchanged, and the new agreement will be sent to the administrative contact person based on this information. For Finnish organizations the signing process will be carried through with a electronic VismaSign service, the foreign organizations will need to deliver the signed agreement to CSC via snail mail. If there have been any changes to the details of the administrative person, please contact haka@csc.fi.

How does the electronic signing process of the agreement work?

For Finnish organizations the operator uses the Visma Sign (https://vismasign.fi/) service for electronic signatures in the context of the reform of the service agreement. An electronic signature can be provided as follows:

  1. The operator sends a request for a signature to the email address of the Haka administrative contact person, who serves as the signatory, from the Visma Sign service. The email message contains a personal link that the signatory must use.
  2. The signatory can study the content of the reformed Haka service agreement in the Visma Sign service.
  3. The signatory can accept and sign the reformed service agreement electronically, by using either online banking credentials or a mobile certificate.
  4. When the signing transaction succeeds, the Visma Sign service will send an email acknowledgement to both the Haka Operator and the signatory.

The content of the Haka service agreement and the electronic signature related to it can be validated afterwards by both the operator and the person who has signed the agreement.

What should I do if I cannot sign the new agreement electronically?

If you are unable to sign the agreement electronically, you can renew the service agreement with a traditional, non-electronic signing method, in this case the organizations may deliver the signed agreement to CSC via snail mail. For further details contact Haka support: haka@csc.fi

What happens to organisations that do not sign the new agreement?

If the agreement has not been signed by 15 November 2019, the Haka Operator will deem that the member or partner in question has discontinued their operation in the Haka Identity Federation. After 15 November 2019, the Operator has the right and the obligation to remove from the Haka Identity Federation all servers whose ownership has been registered in the name of organisations that do not have an agreement.

If I join the Haka Identity Federation before the new agreement enters into force, what should I do?

New members will sign both the old service agreement that remains in effect, as a fixed-term contract, until 14 November 2019 and the new service agreement which takes effect on 15 November 2019.

In processing attributes released by the Home Organization, the Service Provider shall be obligated as Data Controller to abide by the GÉANT Data Protection Code of Conduct  established for Federation operations. Where can I find a valid version of this Code of Conduct?

The most recent version of the Data Protection Code of Conduct can be found at https://wiki.refeds.org/display/CODE/Code+of+Conduct+ver+2.0+project