Heard of digital signatures and wondering what they are? Wondering whether digital signatures have any legal basis? On this page, we are going to share the facts about digital signatures. This is, basically, everything that you need to know about signing a contract with a digital signature!
What Are Digital Signatures?
Digital signatures are pretty much what they say on the tin. It is a way for you to sign something digitally through your computer, much in the same way that you would sign a physical piece of paper.
Digital signatures are becoming more and more popular with businesses. This is because of the ease of getting a contract signed digitally, as well as the fact that less paper needs to be printed and mailed out, which can help to cut huge costs for a business.
How Do Digital Signatures Work?
It depends on the digital signature company that the contract provider is using.
The company sending the contract has a responsibility to tell you exactly how to sign the contract. This includes details on the software that you use. However, as long as you have access to the following, you should be fine:
An email address
A device capable of accessing the internet
Computer OR cellphone OR tablet computer
An internet browser
You will then likely be emailed a link by the company. You have to click this link where you will be given the contract to read through. Somewhere on that page, you will be asked to sign it. This may be a tick box, or it may involve you actually typing your name out. Some will even allow you to write your signature with your mouse. As we said, all systems are different.
Once you have signed the contract, you will often have to click 'save' or 'send' somewhere on the page to submit the completed contract to the business.
Are Digital Signatures Legally Enforceable?
Absolutely. In the United States, digital signatures have been classed the same as any written signature. So, if you do sign a contract, you should probably make sure that you understand what you are signing. If you don't, then you are going to run in all sorts of issues if you do not agree with the contract and the company tries to enforce it against you!
The company will have to conform to some pretty specific requirements in order to ensure that the digital signature is valid. However, most of these are going to be related to telling you the hardware and software that you need to sign the contract. They will also need to focus a little bit on record keeping their end. It isn't anything that you will need to worry about.
Why Use Digital Signatures?
It is quicker and it is far easier.
Once you have read and understood the contract, you will be able to sign it in mere seconds. This is going to be far, far better than previous methods where you would have to send a signed contract back to the company. This could take days and days to process.
While most companies will allow you to sign contracts using the 'old method', we seriously suggest that you use digital signatures whenever you can. It is going to make your life a whole lot easier.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. You now know what digital signatures are, as well as a bit of information on how they work. It isn't a difficult process, and once you realize how simple digital signatures are, you will be using them fairly often when signing contracts!
