2019-06-04 18:11:38 -04:00
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{{#> layout }}
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<div class="about">
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2019-06-26 19:54:09 -04:00
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<center><h2><a href="/about">About</a> | <a href="/about/news">News</a> | <a href="/about/usage">Usage</a> | FAQ | <a href="/about/stats">Stats</a> | <a href="/about/privacy">Privacy</a></h2></center>
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2019-06-04 18:11:38 -04:00
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2019-06-10 14:28:37 -04:00
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<h3 id="no-sign-verified"><a href="#no-sign-verified">Why not sign keys
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after verification?</a></h3>
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2019-06-04 18:11:38 -04:00
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The <span class="brand">keys.openpgp.org</span> service is meant for key
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distribution and discovery, not as a de-facto CA. Client implementations
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that want to offer verified communication should rely on their own trust
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model.
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2019-06-10 14:28:37 -04:00
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<h3 id="non-email-uids"><a href="#non-email-uids">Why is there no support
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2019-06-10 15:51:19 -04:00
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for identities that aren't e-mail addresses?</a></h3>
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2019-06-10 14:28:37 -04:00
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<p>
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We require explicit consent to distribute identity information.
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Identities that aren't e-mail addresses, such as pictures or addresses,
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offer no simple way for us to acquire this consent.
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</p>
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<p>
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Note: Some OpenPGP software creates keys with incorrectly formatted
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e-mail addresses. These addresses might not be recognized correctly on
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<span class="brand">keys.openpgp.org</span>.
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</p>
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2019-06-13 08:02:59 -04:00
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<h3 id="third-party-signatures"><a href="#third-party-signatures">
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Do you distribute "third party signatures"?</a></h3>
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<p>
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Short answer: No.
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</p>
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<p>
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A "third party signature" is a signature on a key
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that was made by some other key.
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Most commonly,
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those are the signatures produced when "signing someone's key",
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which are the basis for
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the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_trust" target="_blank">Web of Trust</a>".
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For a number of reasons,
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those signatures are not currently distributed
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via <span class="brand">keys.openpgp.org</span>.
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</p>
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<p>
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The killer reason is <strong>spam</strong>.
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Third party signatures allow attaching arbitrary data to anyone's key,
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and nothing stops a malicious user from
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attaching so many megabytes of bloat to a key
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that it becomes practically unusable.
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Even worse,
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they could attach offensive or illegal content.
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</p>
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<p>
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There are ideas to resolve this issue.
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For example, signatures could be distributed with the signer,
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rather than the signee.
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Alternatively, we could require
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cross-signing by the signee before distribution
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to support a
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<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/caff" target="_blank">caff-style</a>
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workflow.
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If there is enough interest,
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we are open to working with other OpenPGP projects
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on a solution.
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</p>
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2019-06-10 15:51:19 -04:00
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<h3 id="revoked-uids"><a href="#revoked-uids">Why are revoked identities not
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distributed as such?</a></h3>
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<p>
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When an OpenPGP key marks one of its identities as revoked, this
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identity should no longer be considered valid for the key. And this
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information should ideally be distributed to all OpenPGP clients that
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already know about the newly revoked identity.
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</p>
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<p>
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Unfortunately, there is currently no good way to distribute revocations,
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that doesn't also reveal the revoked identity itself. We don't want to
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distribute revoked identities, so we can't distribute the identity at
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all.
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</p>
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<p>
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There are proposed solutions to this issue, that allow the distribution
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of revocations without also revealing the identity itself. But so far
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there is no final specification, or support in any OpenPGP software. We
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hope that a solution will be established in the near future, and will
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add support on <span class="brand">keys.openpgp.org</span> as soon as
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we can.
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</p>
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2019-06-10 14:28:37 -04:00
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2019-06-11 04:13:31 -04:00
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<h3 id="tor"><a href="#tor">Do you support Tor?</a></h3>
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<p>
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Of course!
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If you have Tor installed,
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you can reach <span class="brand">keys.openpgp.org</span> anonymously
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as an
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)#Onion_services" target="_blank">onion service</a>:
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<br />
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2019-06-12 07:26:25 -04:00
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<a href="http://zkaan2xfbuxia2wpf7ofnkbz6r5zdbbvxbunvp5g2iebopbfc4iqmbad.onion">zkaan2xfbuxia2wpf7ofnkbz6r5zdbbvxbunvp5g2iebopbfc4iqmbad.onion</a>
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2019-06-11 04:13:31 -04:00
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</p>
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2019-06-10 14:28:37 -04:00
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<h3 id="encrypt-verification-emails"><a href="#encrypt-verification-emails">
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Why not encrypt verification e-mails?</a></h3>
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2019-06-04 18:11:38 -04:00
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Various reasons:
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<ol>
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<li>It is more complicated, both for our users and for us.</li>
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<li>It doesn't prevent attacks - an attacker gains nothing from
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uploading a key they don't have access to.</li>
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<li>Deletion would still have to be possible even when a key is
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lost.</li>
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<li>It would require a different (and more complicated) mechanism to
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upload keys that can only sign.</li>
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</ol>
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2019-07-02 06:07:28 -04:00
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<h3 id="sks-pool"><a href="#sks-pool">Is this server part of the "SKS" pool?</a></h3>
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2019-06-04 18:11:38 -04:00
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2019-07-02 06:07:28 -04:00
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<p>
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No. The federation model of the SKS pool has various problems in terms
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of reliability, abuse-resistance, privacy, and usability. We might do
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something similar to it, but <span class="brand">keys.openpgp.org</span>
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will never be part of the SKS pool itself.
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2019-06-04 18:11:38 -04:00
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</p>
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2019-07-02 06:07:28 -04:00
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<h3 id="federation"><a href="#federation">Is keys.openpgp.org federated? Can I help by running an instance?</a></h3>
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<p>
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For the moment, no.
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We do plan to decentralize <span class="brand">keys.openpgp.org</span>
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at some point.
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With multiple servers
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run by independent operators,
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we can further improve the reliability
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of this service.
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2019-06-04 18:11:38 -04:00
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</p>
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2019-06-12 12:06:51 -04:00
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2019-07-02 06:07:28 -04:00
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<p>
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Several folks offered to help out
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by "running a Hagrid server instance".
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We very much appreciate the offer,
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but we will probably never have an "open" federation model like SKS,
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where everyone can run an instance and become part of a "pool".
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This is for two reasons:
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</p>
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<ol>
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<li>
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Federation with open participation requires all data to be public.
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This significantly impacts the privacy of our users, because it
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allows anyone to scrape a list of all e-mail addresses.
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</li>
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<li>
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Servers run as a hobby by casual administrators do not meet our
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standards for reliability and performance.
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</li>
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</ol>
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2019-06-12 12:06:51 -04:00
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<h3 id="older-gnupg"><a href="#older-gnupg">
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2019-07-02 06:07:28 -04:00
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I have trouble updating some keys with GnuPG. Is there a bug?
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2019-06-12 12:06:51 -04:00
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</a></h3>
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<p>
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2019-06-13 05:32:42 -04:00
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This is a problem with current versions of GnuPG. If you attempt to
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update a key from <span class="brand">keys.openpgp.org</span> that
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contains no <a href="/about">identity information</a>, GnuPG will refuse
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to process the key:
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2019-06-12 12:06:51 -04:00
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</p>
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<blockquote>
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2019-06-13 05:32:42 -04:00
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$ gpg --receive-keys A2604867523C7ED8<br />
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2019-06-12 12:40:14 -04:00
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gpg: key A2604867523C7ED8: no user ID
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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We are working with the GnuPG team to resolve this problem.
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</p>
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2019-06-04 18:11:38 -04:00
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</div>
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{{/layout}}
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