Only Pen and Ink Signature Are Legally Binding
People believe a myth that a handwritten signature on a paper document is more legally binding than a digital signature. We’re accustomed to thinking of a physical signature as the act that makes a document legal and binding, but legally a digital signature carries the same weight as a pen-and-ink signature.
Countries and Laws making E Signatures Legal
- The Information Technology Act, 2008, India
- The U.S. E-sign Act, 2000
- Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (U.E.T.A) 1999, USA
- Electronic Signatures Directive, Directive 1999/93/EC of 13 December 1999, European Union
- Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), 2004, Canada
- Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA) instituted in 2002, South Africa
Electronic Signatures Aren’t Secure
Unless you’re having a document notarized, a pen-and-ink signature might be easier to contest than a digital signature. A physical signature carries no proof of when the document was signed or who signed it, other than the handwriting. Signatures can be forged, and handwritten dates can be falsified. With a digital signature, you have a data trail that shows the exact time the signature was affixed and the IP address of the person who signed the document. Depending on the system you use, you can even request proof of identity in order to access the signature function.
- Trusted Digital ID
Compliant, certificate-based digital IDs come from accredited providers. You need to prove your identity before you can get one.
- Encrypted
Your digital signature and the document you sign are encrypted together and bound with a tamper-evident seal.
- Unique
Every time you sign a document, you use your own unique digital certificate and PIN to validate your credentials and prove you’re who you say you are.
- Easy to validate
Both the signed document and your digital signature can be re-validated by a CA or TSP for up to 10 years after the signing event.
With Cygnaturedepending on the sensitivity of the document you are signing, you can choose the type and combination of signatures like Electronic, Digital or Biometric & LIVE Cygnature.Cygnature uses blockchain and advanced cryptography to safeguard the signed documents from fraud and tampering.
Customers Will Balk at E-Signing Documents
Customers are quite adaptive to the electronic signatures as it assures saving time and paperwork hassles. It becomes easy for the customers to store the documents on cloud and need not carry them or keep them safe every time. One biggest benefit for customers when they sign digitally is, they can sign documents anywhere and anytime, there is no limitation on signing.
The foremost worry about document signing digitally is security. When you sign a document digitally you have records on who signed the document, when signed it, how signed it where signed it etc. so you are 100% aware about the signer.
When you sign documents on Cygnature, itgives blockchain protection to the documents and uses multiple layers of protection for the login activity and access controls. The entire audit trail is recorded in blockchain and stored on secured servers.
- Two factor OTP Authentication to login for account security & access
- Know exactly where user has signed the document. Captures the GPS location of a document signature, whether it’s from a home computer or from a mobile device.
- Captures User’s browser & version details
- Captures device Name, OS and its version
- Logs entire blockchain transaction & document Activity with block details & hash
- Verification of the documents by document hash & transaction hash
- Summary of all the document details, activity, signer details, signatures & their timestamp
- E-mail & Mobile no. verification for true user credentials & identity
Conclusion
As we can see Electronic signatures are accepted all over the world as legally binding and give even more security than the wet ink signatures, Companies can always opt to go paperless and move business processes towards more efficiency and bring in better experience for their customers too.
