Unlock eSignature Legality for Research and Development in Australia

How to eSign a document: eSignature legality for Research and Development in Australia

From , this is developing with ,  a technical overview of electronic signatures.   I'm Larry Kluger, Lead  Developer Advocate for .   Electronic signatures or eSignatures continue  to take the world by storm, and their use has   accelerated during the COVID pandemic. But unlike  TikTok challenges, eSignature usage is expected to   remain high and continue to grow rapidly even  after we can all meet in person once again. A properly executed eSignature has the same  force of law as a written, or wet signature   for almost all contracts or transactions in  almost all countries. has a legality   guide that discusses the relevant laws for many  countries. The business person for your project   should determine the legal requirements for the  eSignatures for your application. does   not provide legal advice, but we do have resources  for business people and attorneys on our website. Let's dive into some technical details.  There are three types of eSignatures.   To describe them we'll use the terminology of  the eIDAS regulations of the European Commission.   There are simple electronic signatures,  advanced electronic signatures,   and qualified electronic signatures.  Let's look into each type of signature. Simple electronic signatures do not use the public  key infrastructure PKI nor digital certificates.   Any level of signer authentication can be  used, depending on the application's use case.   Simple electronic signatures are used for most  eSignature use cases in the US and in other   countries with common law legal systems. Advanced  electronic signatures use PKI digital certificates   to sign documents. Qualified electronic  signatures also use PKI digital certificates. A qualified electronic signature further requires  that the signer's certificate is issued by a   government-chartered trust service provider,  who must verify the identity of the signer.   Qualified certificates and signatures can be  done entirely online using a video interview of   the signer to assure the trust service provider  of the signer's identity. This process is fully   integrated into for use by developers via  the API and via the web app. Advanced and   qualified electronic signatures are required to  sign some types of transactions, especially in   countries that use a civil law legal system,  as is the case for many European countries. But there are many types of agreements and  transactions in Europe and other civil law   countries that can use simple electronic  signatures, and there are some in the US   and other common law countries that require an  advance or qualified signature. The good news   is that has integrated all three types  of e eSignatures into its eSignature product. Switching gears, a different type of eSignature  use case is to obtain consent to a website's terms   and conditions or similar types of agreements. For  this use case, offers its Click product.   Click provides a very easy to configure simple  electronic signature system that includes a   pop-up signing window within your website. Bottom  line is that no matter what type of eSignature   your application needs, you can easily add e  eSignatures to your application with .   Next step is to visit developers..com,  sign up for a free developer account, and try it   out. If you'd like to learn more on this subject,  please see this video's show notes. Thank you.