Virtual reality and business processes carried out in it become a necessity in modern life. Not the least role in closing a deal or signing an important document is played by a digital electronic signature (ES). It is used to identify the author of an electronic document.

SignNow service allows you to create your own ES and comfortably use all its advantages, including integration with popular applications and a high degree of data protection.

What Is an Electronic Signature and Why Is It So Relevant Today?

An ES is an autograph of a person presented in a digital format. It can be used from any device: a computer, smartphone, or tablet. The key feature of an electronic signature is its ease of use since a document can be signed with a single click of your mouse. The usage of an ES helps companies to reduce costs, close deals faster, and collaborate on various electronic documents.

Why is an ES much better than a regular signature?

A hand-written signature cannot guarantee 100% identification, unlike electronic signatures.

A pen-and-paper signature often has poor quality, and therefore, it is easily falsified. For example, a bank’s client has a need to be serviced in its various offices. Thus, each office should have its samples of the client’s signature. It means that the bank should not only send a scanned sample to all the offices but also provide protection against spoofing and, in order to verify the authenticity of the signature, display the original image on a monitor. In this situation, it is simple to deceive the bank and lay hands on other people’s money. Moreover, the usage of a passport or other respective document as a client’s identity verification does not completely exclude the possibility of fraud on the part of the client.

With a hand-written signature, it is difficult to compare it with the original one, which is often missing. This may happen not only because of a low legal culture level but also due to an objective reason, the difficulty of working with samples of the original signature. As a result, an unscrupulous partner may refuse to fulfill his or her obligations in the future.

The quality of a pen-and-paper signature can vary depending on different conditions thath affect a person. Excitement or fatigue, alcohol consumption or a deliberate change of signature – all this makes the identification of the owner more difficult in the future or may result in criminal issues.

An ES is completely devoid of these shortcomings and considered a convenient and secure tool for the identification of all parties. Private keys and modern methods of protecting information from third parties are used there. The authenticity of an ES is easy to verify but almost impossible to fake. An ES reduces the time of employees’ interaction with documents and can save plenty of money.

Convenience in Applying an Electronic Signature:

The pros are the following:

  • Simple control of the signed document integrity. An ES will be invalid if a document is not received by a recipient in full;
  • Powerful protection against falsification of documents;
  • An easy way to prove the authorship of an important document or the validity of an agreement. It is impossible to deny an electronic signature placed on documents;
  • Quick acceptance or creation of payments;
  • Automation of work processes;
  • Speed and cross-platform solutions;
  • Optional internet connection.
  • Thus, an electronic signature is a convenient tool for a modern Internet businessman.

Advantages of Using SignNow Electronic Signatures

  • The advantages include the following:
  • Access to your user account from any device;
  • Cooperation with USLegal, using of a library containing a large number of legal packages and forms;
  • The ability to work with the SignNow API without writing code;
  • Improving the efficiency of your employees by reducing the amount of time spent interacting with documents, the ability to send group invitations, etc.;
  • High security standards such as several levels of protection, cloud solutions, document sharing, and so on;
  • Integration with popular programs.

SignNow Electronic Signature Security

  • SignNow provides the highest level of data protection and high privacy. The company has multiple certificates that confirm it (SOC 2, 21 CFR, PCI DSS, GDPR compliance).
  • Why is a SignNow ES the most secure and convenient tool for a company of any profile?
  • Replication of documents is applied with their placement in several places at the same time, which implies the constant availability of these documents.
  • A disaster recovery plan is offered in case of force majeure. SignNow secures important documents and protects them from third parties.
  • Cloud technologies are applied. Each document is kept for seven years or the period agreed upon with a client. Legal regulations compliance is followed.
  • The history of users’ activity is available by clicking “Download with history”. You can always check who and when made changes to your document.
  • All network security standards are followed. SOC 2 compatible servers are used. Any information passing through the company’s platform is encoded using modern encryption methods.

What else can we add about document security features?

  • Utilization of Several networks, which ensures a stable speed, duplication, and backup of data;
  • An audit trail of each document;
  • Protection against DDoS attacks;
  • 256-bit SSL;
  • Physical precautions 24/7 all year round;
  • High-quality modern network equipment
  • Using digital certificate technology.