If Congress Endorses E-Signatures, Will Consumers?

He that would have the fruit must climb the tree.
—Thomas Fuller, M.D.

Known in short as the E-SIGN bill, The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act [S.761], provides a standardized federal e-signature statute on the nation's law books that supercedes any state regulations that disallowed e-mail use for contractual communications. We look at one company already working this way.

by Patricia Fusco ISP-Planet Managing Editor [June 21, 2000]

Legislation that gives e-signatures and documents the same stature in law as paper counterparts last week received U.S. Senate approval.

The Senate endorsement of The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act [S.761] sends the bill to the desk of President Clinton, who has said he will sign the e-legislation into law soon.

Known in short as the E-SIGN bill, the legislation is an essential part of Congressional efforts to modernize the nation's laws in step with the paradigm shift advancing technologies brings to the American economy.

Commerce at light speed (e=c²)
Consumers and businesses will quickly be able to sign e-checks, complete e-loan applications, and agree to e-contracts online, further broadening e-commerce transactions under the confines of the soon-to-be law.

The law provides a standardized federal e-signature statute on the nation's law books that supercedes any state regulations that disallowed e-mail use for contractual communications.

Crafted to be a cost-cutting measure, the law will be a boon to several segments of the Internet industry, including data storage and retrieval services, database software, data backup systems, secure filing services, and others, as well as e-mail authenticity firms like PostX.

PostX — Morrissey rocks
PostX offers a solid solution for delivering secure personalized documents through e-mail and the Web. Based in Cupertino, CA, PostX developed its flagship PostX Express system on an NT platform to do what the Pony Express once on horseback.

Richard Morrissey, PostX vice president of business development, said the overall business benefit is that firms no longer have to keep physical records, but that they also cut costs by not having to have physical contact with a customer in order to seal a deal.

"Think about how you pump gas without signing in the presence of tellers, go through toll booths without stopping and handing money to some one, withdraw money from an ATM machine without using a teller, use your credit card on the Internet," Morrissey said. "These are examples of on going relationships that were established by mail or in person, but rely on some sort of electronic proof to finalize."

"Now you can establish a relationship using electronic proof," Morrissey continued. "The electronic proof can take the form that is adequate for the 'risk' factor."

Morrissey granted that consumer concerns about someone impersonating them would exist, but that businesses must work to overcome consumer fears.

"Businesses will obviously need to provide a service that satisfies customers," Morrissey said. "Consumer concerns can be soothed once they understand the ways by which they can validate themselves and are assured that the validation process makes it difficult to impersonate them."

"Consumers must be educated in the multiple ways to ways to verify their identities through different venues," Morrissey continued. "Today, consumers validate who they are with credit card companies all the time. 'Are you calling from your home,' 'do you know your last few transactions,' and 'what is your mother's maiden name' confirm who the consumer is. PostX sells to businesses which incorporate our product into theirs, and their validation methods."

Partnership
PostX is also one of the first companies to partner with the U.S. Postal Service to offer an e-postmark, which ensures document fidelity and tracks the date and time of e-mail delivery.

Morrissey said its up to individual companies work with PostX to earn consumer trust.

"The United States Postal Service Electronic Postmark provides extremely high levels of tamper-detection and the security component is 128-bit encryption with a password as the key," Morrissey said. "PostX's services are designed to satisfy the security levels of the application. We can swap in a public key infrastructure solution if businesses and their customers want to go through the effort of implementation."

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