Now that e-signatures have been approved by federal law in the US will mean opening up a whole new era of contracts that can be signed and sealed by a click of a button.
The law outlines that a signature can no longer be turned down because it is electric, therefore making a click of a mouse button or the swipe of a credit card, just as binding.
The intention of introducing this law is to allow more business transactions to take place on-line. However, the main area where this will have an impact will be of course those companies creating security technology. As more businesses conduct on-line e-contracts, the need will be for security especially covering the usage of digital signatures.
Eventually analysts envisage that e-signatures will be used for everything and talks are already taking place between businesses to allow such transactions in the near future, such as selling insurance, paying for airline tickets, updating personal information over the internet, etc.
Obviously not all sectors are seeing this move as a step forward, only opening the door for wider security scams, fraud and further theft over the internet. As more people are becoming comfortable with using their credit cards over the internet, analysts have stated that by using e-signatures would be yet another measure against fraud. I am yet to be convinced.
