Streamline complicated workflows
Create, deliver, and maintain workflows of any complexity, electronically from almost anywhere. Scalable eSignature capabilities allow you to share papers with the right people in the correct way and set up roles for each signee. Perform document workflows faster and simpler than ever before.
Automate document flow
Improve complex signing tasks with airSlate SignNow�s highly effective features to boost your business. Take control of your automatic eSignature workflows to ensure they're running at top functionality with immediate notifications and reminders.
Optimize in team collaboration
Join teammates together in a protected, shared environment. Handle documents, use form templates and notifications to deliver more efficient cross-organization communication. Relieve your workers from having to hang out on repeated activities to enable them to center on valuable, business-vital projects.
Integrate into your current systems
Work your jobs with best-in-class integration. Collect Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint all in one business stream. Connect your applications to a single environment for limitless opportunities and more productiveness.
Remain compliant with market-leading data security
Feel confident understanding that your data is protected by the latest in encryption security. airSlate SignNow is GDPR and eIDAS compliant and provides you awareness into your signing process with court-admissible audit trails. Set up user access permissions and roles to manage who has access to what.
ESIGN and eIDAS regulations
Today all developed and most of developing countries have separate legal acts confirming the legality of electronic signatures on their territories. Two most frequently mentioned of them are ESIGN in the USA and eIDAS of the European Union. Legislation on eSigning in other countries worldwide have been developed mostly after these two, using them as best practices.
So, what exactly does legislation say about eSigning?
ESIGN Act
ESIGN was actually not the first legal act in the United States concerning eSigning. Its precursor was UETA - Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, adopted by 47 states and the District of Columbia back in 1999. The UETA confirmed that if all parties agreed to proceed with signing electronically, their later eSignatures must be considered as fully legal and equal to standard on-paper signatures.
UETA became the legal basis for a federal law passed in 2000, it got the name of ESIGN Act.
In a nutshell, both UETA and ESIGN Act are all about two key provisions:
- Signature in its electronic form cannot be denied its legal effect;
- Any contract signed electronically cannot be denied legal effect solely because of electronic signature.
Apart from granting full legality to electronic signatures, ESIGN Act also sets quite strict requirements to electronic signing procedures:
- Electronic signature will be considered legal only if the signer has clearly demonstrated the intention to sign.
- Prior to eSigning itself, the parties must consent to do business electronically. Also, all signers must have an option to withdraw their consent to do business electronically and choose on-paper signing instead.
- An electronic signature must be accompanied by an electronic record which clearly reflects the process of eSignature creation.
- Records retention requirement: electronic records on the signature must remain accessible to all legally entitled parties. All parties involved in eSigning must be properly instructed on how to access these records.
Any rules has its exceptions. ESIGN Act does not apply to the following types of documents:
- All documents related to courts' functioning, including court orders in the first place;
- Nearly all documents related to life and/or health insurance;
- Wills, codicils, testamentary trusts;
- Any other matter in the field of family law, including marriage, divorce and adoption;
- Official recalls of products in cases when the latter are endangering safety or health of their users/consumers;
- All documents related to transportation of toxic or other hazardous materials;
- Notices on utility services' termination.
eIDAS Regulation
eIDAS stands for 'electronic identification and trust services'. As it is obvious from the name, the core here is identification and authenticity verification.
The eIDAS Regulation was approved by the Council of the European Union back in 2014, but came into effect on 01 July, 2016, thus replacing the Electronic Signature Directive. The Regulation is equally applicable to all EU country members.
(It is also applicable to the UK though there are several additional provisions - the UK eIDAS Regulations)
eIDAS has two parts.
The first part covers the issues of citizens' identification through electronic IDs across the whole EU. This section concerns mostly the public sector and has very little and indirect effect on business.
The second part deals directly with electronic signatures. It sets the rules on how eSigning and e-sealing can be applied in all EU member countries.
What's inside this second part? Translating from the legal language into simple one, the key regulations are as follows:
- Electronic signatures, electronic seals and their timestamps shall be treated as court-admissible evidence in legal proceedings;
- The Regulation differentiates between three types of electronic signatures: simple electronic signature; advanced electronic signature (AdES); qualified electronic signature (QES);
- Electronic seal gets the same recognition as electronic signature but is available for use by legal entities only. (This indirectly means that in many business situations, if need be, electronic seal can be used instead of an eSignature by an authorized top manager).
Now let's clarify what are these three types of eSignatures differentiated by the eIDAS Regulation?
Simple electronic signature - can be service-based (performed in a software) or just drawn by hand using desktop or mobile device (using a stylus on a touchscreen, for example). In a nutshell, this is just a digital image of your signature.
Advanced electronic signature - an eSignature, the authenticity of which is confirmed by a digital certificate issued by a certified authority. This means that prior to eSigning itself, the signer needs to get a certificate from a certified authority. Then, in the process of eSigning, this encrypted certificate is 'attached' to the signature using a secret key known to the signer. The key can be installed on a computer or can be stored alternatively, on a separate smart card, for example. Digital certificate attached to eSignature confirms: a) identity of the signer; b) that no changes have been made in the document after it was eSigned.
Qualified electronic signature: the key difference of qualified electronic signature from advanced electronic signature is that the former has a qualified certificate attached. This certificate can be issued only by a qualified service provider. Qualified certificates must be stored on a qualified signature creation device (USB token, smart card or in a secure cloud). This is the most preferable type of eSigning on the EU territories as only QES is treated as a fully legally binding eSignature.
What is the difference between the US and European approaches to electronic signatures?
The US definition of electronic signature is much broader and does not insist on a particular technology to be applied. It covers mostly the procedures required in the course of eSigning (demonstration of the intention to eSign, decline to sign option, retention of records).
In contrast, European regulations differentiate between three types of eSignature. Moreover, when it comes to public sector use, European laws provide quite specific requirements to eSigning.
Also note that eIDAS leaves all EU member countries an option to specify the list of documents that should not be eSigned and should be sign on paper instead. In most cases such documents would be wills, powers of attorney and statements made under oath. Though each particular state within the EU has the right to amend this list, thus, it is usually recommended to consult a local lawyer in case you are dealing with a highly specific type of document.
