Your signature is a legally-binding acceptance of a document, whether that’s a contract, purchase agreement, or insurance documents. In today’s digital world, it’s no surprise that signatures are going digital too. But is an e-signature as safe and secure as a traditional signature? It may even be better.
What is an e-signature?
Simply put, an e-signature is any digital signature. This can be as simple as scanning your hand-written signature to cut and paste into a document, or drawing your signature in a drawing program. However, with the popularity of digital signing, there are also programs to facilitate e-signing.
Is it secure?
Digital signatures have varying degrees of security, depending on how you use them. A simple image of your signature in a Word document may suffice for internal purposes, but not for outgoing contracts or anything that will be subject to regulatory compliance audits.
However, using e-signature technology goes the extra step to ensure the security of your signature. Using a service that has audit trail capabilities, encryption, and other tools authenticates the digital signature, allowing these e-signatures to stand up to legal scrutiny – and surpass the security of a traditional signature.
Is it legally binding?
Digital signatures are legally binding in the US and many other countries. The US E-Sign Act of 2000 and Uniform Electronic Transactions Act both affirm the legally binding nature of a digital signature for most types of documents.
What other benefits does it have?
Digital signatures are fast and convenient, allowing you to skip the tedious steps of mailing, printing, faxing, and waiting for documents to arrive. Rather, you get the document electronically, sign it, and send it back automatically, keeping the process flowing, saving both time and money.
E-signing is also environmentally friendly, cutting down on paper waste. Rather than printing a full document just for a single signature, everything can be handled online.
Digital documents also cut down on errors, not allowing you to return the document until all the fields have been filled out and signed.
In today’s digital world, e-signatures allow documents to flow freely, without the hassle of printing, signing, and returning documents. These secure digital signatures are just as legally-binding as their traditional counterparts, making it a simple way to deal with documents that need to be signed.
