What are online signatures?
An electronic signature, also known as an e-signed signature, refers to information in digital form, that is cryptographically related to other information in digital form and which the signer uses to sign on legal documents. There is a great deal of importance to the proper functioning of the electronic signature system in our society. Without an electronic signature, signatures can be faked easily, which can seriously undermine the credibility of the legal system, and in turn, greatly undermine confidence in the entire system. Without an electronic signature, legal processes cannot take place online, as can happen with real signatures.
Electronic Documents
When electronic documents are signed offline, the physical signature on the legal documents is stored on the hard drive of the attorney or the client. That signature belongs to the person who signed the document, not to the legal document itself. However, when you perform an online signature, your online signature is stored on a database server maintained by the Electronic Signatures Association, and it is publicly viewable. Anyone can look up whether you agree to the terms of the agreement displayed on your online signature, and anyone can also see other signatures that you have previously signed. This means that anyone can forge your signature and make legal documents without you knowing about it.
Privacy
While some computer users are leery of the privacy invasion that digital signatures bring, there is no reason to be apprehensive. The fact is that with the widespread use of online signature in business transactions, people all over the world are signing more legal documents each day, and this trend is only likely to accelerate. The most common uses for electronic signatures are in the purchase and sale of goods and services online, the procurement of insurance online, and the registration of new domain names and addresses.
Points to Consider
Electronic signatures can be compared to hand-written signatures in certain respects, but they differ fundamentally in the way that they are created and processed. Whereas hand-written signatures are usually required to be in the same form every time the document is signed, an electronic signature is stored electronically, and it can be altered or changed at any time.
The fact that electronic signatures are processed automatically means that the process of signing a document has become completely automated. No longer does a business have to run a fax machine to gather information from a customer, no longer does a business have to leave a postbox with a physical mailbox for a letter carrier to collect the documents. And finally, there is no longer any need for the signature of a notary public to acknowledge the legal documents being transferred.
As mentioned earlier, businesses and individuals commonly use online signatures in order to facilitate the process of signing various documents. For example, when someone wants to purchase insurance online, he or she needs to provide personal and contact details such as his or her name, address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, driver’s license number, and a few more specific pieces of information.
In exchange, the insurance company will process the document and supply the insured with a written signature which guarantees that the document was legally and physically signed by the person named on the document. This notarization process is known as e-signing. Nowadays, virtually anyone who wishes to purchase a tangible object can use the online notary services to register the ownership of the object online.
Before the advent of online signature, a person had to spend a great deal of time and money in order to procure a legal notarization of a written document. Therefore, notaries were considered quite important. One could only obtain a free document with the assistance of a lawyer. Additionally, notaries were very expensive, and their services were only obtainable for a specific period of time. Therefore, people generally had to hire the services of notaries many times over, making the cost of a legal notarization procedure extremely high. You can use workflow automation for these tasks like the online signature, document generation, editing, insurance card template, and much more. Check the Airslate website for details.
Fortunately, the advent of online signatures has radically changed the cost of legal document signing. Today, one may obtain a free online signature in as little as five minutes. Furthermore, the notary public provides numerous additional services at no extra cost. These services are as follows-proofread and proofread the document once it has been printed; the document is notarized; the document is signed by an authorized notary; and the document is sent to the registrar for filing in the court of law. Once the document is received in the office, the client receives a physical key which he or she uses to encrypt the digital signature contained in the document. This encryption process is known as digital certificates.
Currently, there are a large number of companies manufacturing computerized notary public products. They manufacture these products in such a way that they enable a user to create as many electronic signatures as he or she wants. Moreover, such products make use of different technologies so that one may produce as many different e signatures as he or she wants without having to install any special software. The most popular among these types of computerized signatures is the PC-to-PC e signatures. In this type of online signature, a person creates a file with a specific message, then makes use of a specialized notary public software tool that transforms this file into a digital message, a digital signature.
