The legal status of the digital signature

The digital signature of documents

Legality

In Spain, to be a provider of trusted electronic services you must be certified by the Ministry of Science and Technology as a qualified provider of trusted electronic services (if you have your own seal such as those issued by the FNMT) or as an unqualified provider (if you use the seal of a qualified provider such as FNMT, the Bank of Spain, Santander or Wiwink). Wiwink has been approved as a provider of trusted electronic services and its services are legal and can be used in any Member State of the European Union, as we also comply with::

Regulations in the European Union

We comply with the well-known eIDAS Regulation,, Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014, of July 23, 2014, on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC, and it establishes three types of signatures:
  1. Electronic signature, data in electronic format appended to or logically associated with other electronic data used by the signer to sign..
  2. Advanced electronic signature, the electronic signature that meets the requirements referred to in Article 26 of Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014, of July 23, 2014::
    1. It is linked to the signatory in a unique manner;.
    2. It allows the signer to be identified.
    3. It has been created using data from the electronic signature that signers can use, with a high level of trust, under their exclusive control.
    4. It is linked to the data signed using the electronic signature in such a way that any subsequent modification thereof is detectable.
  3. Qualified electronic signature, an advanced electronic signature that is created by a qualified electronic signature creation device and is based on a qualified electronic signature certificate..

Regulations in the United States

There are two laws that regulate electronic signatures in the United States: the E-Sign Act at federal level, and the UETA Act. They do not distinguish between types of electronic signatures, unlike European legislation, which establishes three types of signatures: simple, advanced and qualified. But both U.S. laws do require an accredited record of the operation, and the applicant and signer must each receive a copy of the signed document at the end of each transaction, as well as access to said document in a printable PDF format.
 
Requirements established by European legislation are more demanding than those required by American regulations for electronic signatures, and it establishes three types of signatures according to the level of security: simple, advanced and qualified. Therefore, it can be assumed that electronic signatures that comply with European regulations would also comply with U.S. regulations, provided that a federal law does not impose specific technical characteristics..

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