An electronic signature, or e-signature, is any electronic means that indicates either that a person adopts the contents of an electronic message, or more broadly that the person who claims to have written a message is the one who wrote it (and that the message received is the one that was sent). By comparison, a signature is a stylized script associated with a person. In commerce and the law, a signature on a document is an indication that the person adopts the intentions recorded in the document. Both are comparable to a seal.
Increasingly, encrypted digital signatures are used in e-commerce and in regulatory filings as digital signatures are more secure than a simple generic electronic signature. The concept itself is not new, with common law jurisdictions having recognized telegraph signatures as far back as the mid-19th century and faxed signatures since the 1980s.
In many countries, including the United States, the European Union and Australia, electronic signatures (when recognised under the law of each jurisdiction) have the same legal consequences as the more traditional forms of executing of documents.
Read more about Electronic Signature: In Contract Law, Technological Implementations (signature Systems)
Famous quotes containing the words electronic and/or signature:
“The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“The childless experts on child raising also bring tears of laughter to my eyes when they say, “I love children because they’re so honest.” There is not an agent in the CIA or the KGB who knows how to conceal the theft of food, how to fake being asleep, or how to forge a parent’s signature like a child.”
—Bill Cosby (20th century)