Ensuring eSignature Legality for Employee Compliance Survey in UAE

How to eSign a document: eSignature legality for Employee Compliance Survey in UAE

Ascertia products support International  standards certifications which all help   to ensure interoperability of products when  they're deployed in the field. Ascertia is   also a member of the Cloud Signature Consortium  who have their own API or have worked to create   an API that helps ensure interoperability  between business applications and remote   signing service providers. So Ascertia is  adding support for eID Easy to SigningHub   to further this interoperability to reach  providers that aren't currently supporting   or are unable to support the Cloud Signature  Consortium API. eID Easy has a fantastic way   of providing interoperability and the  means for these business applications to   reach these RSSPs. This was a natural add  for Ascertia and the SigningHub product. I think from from the eID Easy side why we're  looking at this partnership and integration   with SigningHub is obviously because Ascertia is  one of the the leading companies in the field of   signing documents and electronic signatures so  it makes sense for the Qualified Trust Service   Providers that we have already integrated to  our API to have visibility and exposure to   the list of clients that is using SigningHub  at the moment so that their own certificates   out there become more useful and more used  in everyday business cases and signatures. The aim of Ascertia's global ecosystem is  to connect as many Ascertia's products to   its customers, to partners and to as many Trust  Service Providers as possible. Our repos is to   enable the ultimate choice of flexibility and  deployment and so eID Easy enables Ascertia's   SigningHub to expand the number of TSPs that users  can sign with document owners those that need to   sign documents using Trust Service Providers that  are local to either the document owner or to the   document signer. There's plenty of selection  out there already but this expands that even   further so if you're in a country where you  need to use a provider that's local to you   and the document owner isn't this this just  furthers that selection furthers that choice. I think looking at the type of Integrations  that that SigningHub already has with Cloud   signature Consortium TSPs then I think it's  also important to highlight that not all of   the Qualified Trust Service Providers out  there currently offer support for the CSC   implementation in fact the majority of the world  is still not using this implementation so using   our API we make a wide range of science mining  methods and and these Trust Service Providers   available in Ascertia and SigningHub and in fact  with our API and a little bit on the technical   difference between how some of the implementation  of these Trust Service Providers differs from the   CSE with our API you can do the integration  of the methods without needing to redirect   the user to the method so a lot of the methods  allow you to be able to authenticate in the same   context where the document and the signature  is happening then it animates for a better   user experience for the actual person who needs  to sign the document where they they have a more   seamless integrated signing experience with  with SigningHub and that's really our aim with   implementing this API so we we love the CSC we we  offer support for a lot of the methods that are in   the CSC but we see that there's an opportunity  here for covering more Qualified Trust Service   providers and offering a better user experience. I think that's a super important point Joao. I   mean the the whole point of eIDAS EU regulation  and more importantly qualified digital signatures   was that they provided This legal framework across  all of the European countries to digitize and   provide a legal framework to replace traditional  signatures and if you're being asked to sign a   document in a territory region geography where  your provider isn't available on on your signing   platform then that becomes a huge problem for  you so it's coming together of the Ascertia   SigningHub product and the eID Easy platform  is one of those things that actively promotes   and furthers support for the use of qualified  electronic signatures and its legal standing   so we're super excited to be to be able to  support that and bring that to our customers.  If you think about the legal framework then   you know this legal framework has been there from  from 2016. but if you look at actual adoption on   the grounds it's still lagging very much behind  for for a number of reasons but my attention and   of course you know we our company is based in  Estonia where people have been doing qualified   signatures for for ages but our contention is that  it it comes down to the user experience and if   the user experience and the deployment of these  methods isn't there then you're just basically   having to force people from a legal point of view  and that's that's not good so this is why we focus   so heavily on making sure that the integration we  do with with platforms like SigningHub is focused   on providing the best possible customer experience  by using the local methods that people already   have and also by making sure that on the on the  authentication side the user doesn't have to do   too many redirects and everything can happen  in context therefore like you mentioned Mike   further enhancing the whole point of eID Easy  and and these types of qualified signatures.  it's super important that this is compliant to  the standards it has legal standing but you're   right Joao it has to be usable there's so  many of us in the technical world take it   for granted we know what's happening and why we're  getting essentially a particular dialogue and we   have patients to sit there whilst we get the  waiting dialogue etc etc but forgetting that   once this is out there in the field it's in the  hands of your average citizen who are making a   mortgage application they're applying for a loan  they're maybe buying a home or a car so they're   not going to have the technical wherewithal not  doing anybody down here but this this needs to   be usable in the hands of your average person so  absolutely super slick user experience connecting   people with their authentication providers  their signing providers and when people see   the integration we've done the hard work on both  the SigningHub and the eID Easy side hopefully   people will see how easy it's going to be to  sign documents and transact with each other. The whole point of an aggregator like eID  Easy is to take the hard work of talking to   the the multiple authentication mechanisms and and  qualified trust service providers out there each   of them have little nuances which make it very  complicated for someone to take on the workload of   integrating with all of them and this is basically  why why we exist. Typically you would be able   to start a process with you know potentially an  electronic identity that a lot of countries start   to deploying especially since the pandemic these  can come either from from National governments   at the national level like is the case in in  Portugal for example with the national government   implementing the the strong authentication there  it can be done through through private companies   that have kind of a push from the government  side to use these Solutions like is the case   for example in Belgium with its me and those are  just kind of the beginning what we see is a trend   in a lot of electronic identities being deployed  especially now with eIDAS two in the wallets but   we also offer support for different types of  application mechanisms which some would call   perhaps a little bit more old school which are the  National IDs that come with a chip embedded that   have the signings that they have the certificate  embedded in the chip so these type of smart cards   with with a USB card reader um are also a way to  to authenticate and then you have the the sort   of cloud-based certificates where either you could  have a non-boarding with a qualified trust service   provider that gives you a One-Shot certificate or  you can have like your your long-term certificate   that is stored somewhere and then you access it  at the moment of signing so these are just some   of the type of authentication mechanisms that we  have already integrated with our API and obviously   we have an extensive roadmap where we keep adding  more and more methods to the to the platform. Ccoming from the Ascertia SigningHub side eID  Easy makes it super simple for us to integrate   and reach all these different territories and  all these different providers as you mentioned   you've got everything from national identity cards  mobile based smart credential schemes USB    SMS signing National IDPs there's so many there  that a business application could potentially   leverage you know SigningHub support for a vast  array of authentication mechanisms already we try   to standardize wherever possible so SAM or open  IDCconnect just to name a few but when you start   reaching each and every country in Europe and  then stepping beyond that you do run into some   weird and wonderful things that you couldn't  hope to hope to support. So eID Easy makes it   super easy for us to standardize upon one API  eID Eas have a hard time they're doing a lot of   work here as the broker in the middle but but  you know that that makes it a good partnership   for us to be able to leverage you know we're able  to reach all of these different providers the eID   to leverage the easy of use of the the  signing platform where we can jointly   promote and further the support for Qualified  Electronic Signatures I think it's worth also   adding some of the complexity when you get down  to the signers job what those signing providers   are doing so some in the signing world again  getting a little bit technical you've got a   document that flows into a business application  like SigningHub you've then got a choice where   the entire document is sent to the end user  to sign and is rendered on their mobile device   that might be due to local legislation or other  legal and technical requirements so you can see   the document on your handset as you're about  to sign it which is great for me what you see   is what you sign standpoint because on your  mobile device you're seeing the document but   if you're an enterprise or provider way there  are security concerns you might not want the   document to leave the signing application so  there's a there's a bit of a negative there. You know obviously we're talking of Qualified  Signatures for most cases right and these come   with certain some certain compliance requirements  from the issue or office certificate so if you   want to just make a little distinction between  you know what a qualified signature is and   what an advanced identity based signature is  then essentially you're you're Outsourcing   the liability if something goes wrong to the  Qualified Trust Service Provider and this is   where Mike you mentioned it very well that  for their own compliance they want to make   sure that nothing wrong is happening at the  moment of signing a document so either they   certify the flow where the user actually  is aware of what is being signed or they   want to make sure that you know using their  own mobile application the document gets sent   in a way that the user gets to see the document  on their phone on their smartphone before they   actually sign it now what we're doing with  uh with SigningHub because SigningHub has   a long experience with working with Qualified  Service Providers is that we're trying to make   sure that the documents never have to leave  SigningHub for the signing moment and this   this has to come with the process of making  sure that the compliance is met when talking   to the Qualified Trust Service Providers and  that's definitely something that is going to   come when we when we go live and will continue to  increases the coverage of methods also increases. This is all about flexibility absolutely there's  a compliance standpoint but your flexibility plays   a huge part here document owners and documents  signers need to be able to sign with the right   credentials from the right provider ultimately  so Ascertia SigningHub in conjunction with the   eID Easy offers and delivers a vast amount of  flexibility to both those that need to share   documents to collect signatures and those that  need to sign to approve something or to sign up to   a legal agreement sign up to a particular service  so as a starting point Ascertia SigningHub is   going to start with support for signing documents  using hash based signing so this means that we'll   use or continue to use the SigningHub existing  model where from a sovereign standpoint documents   that need to be signed stay within the SigningHub  environment they stay within a deployment of the   signing up product giving you control from a  security standpoint so they will remain within   an enterprise where SigningHubs deployed or they  would remain in a Trust Service Povider all within   a country remaining that retain that security  element and only the hash of the document that   needs to be signed is sent to the remote signing  provider so you are kind of giving document owner   or the enterprise TSP control of the document  it never leaves the country and and what we'll   do given that eID Easy has this wonderful  array of providers that support both hash   based signing and full document signing as gel  mentioned you know that document needs to be in   some cases sent to the user's mobile device from a  regulatory standpoint we're going to be evaluating   and looking to add it to the SigningHub roadmap as  and when we need to to support those territories   and those users where it's critically important  the document has to be on their mobile device.  The eID Easyside, the mission of our company is  to make qualified signatures an everyday affairs   so that people will stop doing this sort  of uh you know funny scribble on a PDF and   actually move to two identity based signatures or  signatures that are they're fully compliant with   um with eIDAS so I think why this is important  why this integration is important it has to do   with something that Mike already mentioned  which is flexibility in that sense that we   provide access to local methods that people  already use every day where they don't have   to be onboarded into a you know a third-party  app for a different uh way of getting the   the qualified certificates therefore reducing  the friction because if you're operating in a   geography where someone is already using this type  of authentication or signature method then they're   aware of what the user experience looks like so  less friction and then the last aspect which Mike   you already talked about is the full security  and full compliance so that you can be sure   that you're getting a signature that you can take  with you and be fully secure and full compliance.