FAQ about Electronic Signature (e-Sign)

Created by Jamie Heindl, Modified on Fri, Jul 19 at 12:06 PM by Jamie Heindl

1.  Are electronic signatures legal?


Yes.  Over 60 countries in the world have some form of e-signature legislation that recognizes electronic signatures as being legal.  The ESIGN Act (Passed in 2000) and UETA Act (Passed in 1999) are what outline and enforce the legality of e-signature in the United States.   Under both of these legislative measures, electronic signatures are given the same legal weight as a handwritten signature.  Another one you have likely heard about is from the European Union, called Electronic Identification, Authentication, and Trust Services (eIDAS) (Enacted 2016).  eIDAS governs cross boarder agreements and other standards that are used by 27 countries within the EU.  

 

2.  Are e-Signatures and Digital Signatures the same?


While many people use "e-signature" and "digital signature" interchangeably, they are actually two different things.  


Electronic Signature (e-signature) is the "mark" that represents a person's intent to sign a document.  It's quite literally the physical signature on the document.  


Digital signatures are important to the security and authenticity of that signature.  A digital signature is like a fingerprint that is unique to the transaction or person signing the document, which is used to verify the authenticity of the document.  Digital signatures are often used in conjunction with e-signatures and include encryption and decryption of public keys associated with the signers and transaction.  


3.  What exactly is e-signature?


As defined by the ESIGN act of 2000, electronic signatures are:  "An electronic sound, symbol or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record." 


4.  Are e-signatures really more secure than wet ink signatures?


Yes.  The benefit to e-signature is that each document comes with a detailed audit trail and history of events associated with each signers actions during the transaction.  You can easily see when they have viewed the document, edited or signed.  The signed document is sent to each person involved in the process, along with the audit trail.  The document itself is secured with layers of security, including digital certificates, tamper proof/tamper evident seals, industry standard data encryption in transit and at rest with TLS connections and AES 256-bit encryption.  When compared to the traditional signing method, wet-ink signatures and paper-based signing methods are easier to forge and harder to track, catch or prevent unauthorized changes.  


5.  Can ALL documents be signed electronically?


While the technology certainly exists to support signing every document in the world electronically, there are many industry-specific documents and process that are not permitted to be signed electronically.  There are also some regional restrictions that prevent documents from being signed electronically as well.  Always check your local/state regulations as well as the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) page when confirming which documents can be signed electronically. 


6.  Is there a free trial of the Infinity Plan?


At this time, MyeSign does not offer a free trial of our team level plans.  Our free trial is limited to the individual plan.  


7.  How does the Infinity Plan work?


Once you upgrade to or buy the Infinity plan you can decide how many seats you would like to buy.  If you just want to stick with one for now, that's okay!  You can upgrade or downgrade any time, without having to go through the MyeSign support or sales department.  When you are ready to add team members, just add a new seat.  The initial cost may be prorated, depending on how close you are to your new billing cycle.  Your new billing cycle will include all of the seats currently in your team plan.  For more information on those costs, refer to your billing and subscription preferences in your plan for. 


8.  How can I use MyeSign now? 


Great question!  You can use MyeSign in many ways.  Here are just a few examples:

9.  Do you have special rates for Real Estate?


Actually...yes we do! Contact your local association to see if they are a partner or email support@myesign.com for more information. This program is not just for real estate, but for all industries with similar organizational structures. 


10. How do I get started with my free trial! 


It's easy!  Sign up for your free account at https://app.myesign.com/sign-up.. You will get 1 document per month,  free FOREVER! Or you can upgrade to our other affordable plans for larger volume, templates and team experiences. 


11. What is the Forever Free Plan?


The Forever Free plan is exactly that...an e-signature plan that cost absolutely nothing.  Subscribers to the Forever Free plan get one document a month for free - forever.  This plan is perfect for people who only have the occasional document to sign and don't want the hassle of having to pay for a subscription, or bounce around from free trial to free trial. 


12. Do you offer special programs for non-profits and schools?


YES!  We love giving back to the community and part of that is supporting non-profits and educational programs with special programs that offer low cost to no cost tech solutions.  contact us at support@myesign.com for more information.



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