A new federal law that took effect on October 1 gives e-signatures the same legal standing as their handwritten counterparts, a significant change that promises new opportunities and risks on the Internet.

On June 30, 2000, President Clinton signed a bill into law that makes digital signatures as legitimate in binding contracts as those on pen and paper. Unfortunately, the definition of a signature ranges anywhere from a cryptographic key (good, and very unique) to a single button click or dialtone beep.

That's right. For all intents and purposes a company could claim that the number '1', pressed from my telephone while communicating with a computer could be considered a binding signature. This legislation and all the poor definitions that go with it will go into effect on October 1, 2000.

In order to preserve the integrity and authenticity of my own signatures, I'm announcing here, very publicly that the only legitimate digital signature that can legitimately represent Robert William Carlson of 141 Nunnery Lane, in Baltimore, Maryland is a cryptographically signed public key system, specifically the GNU Privacy Guard, with a key of no less than 1024 bits. The currently used key is at the link below, updated daily at 0330 EDT.

Rob Carlson's GPG Public Key

My web page is the most public forum easily available to me, and advertised in my signature. Hopefully that'll be worth at least a little towards keeping my identity safe.

For more information, read Legalized e-signatures bring convenience, risk on CNN.

No Comments | #126

Unless noted, all content on epistolary.org is © Copyright 1999-2008 to Rob Carlson with all rights reserved. All information is verified when possible, cited as appropriate and applied in the real world at your own risk. Send all feedback to rob@vees.net.