Now, as I may have mentioned before, I’m all for electronic advancements. I love me some cyber punk and I look forward to the day where I get to be integrated into the net in a full-on, ghost in the shell type way.
So it’s with a strange mix of feelings that I look at this announcement by DocuSign saying that they’re expanding their operations to include smartphones. On one hand, logically I am aware that this is a step that needs to happen for my dream to come true. On the other, the idea of signing mortgage papers with a smartphone kind of unnerves me.
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| And not just because I suspect that some of them are evil Source |
I’m not sure what it is. Maybe it’s that I know how easy it is to accidentally sign up for things on my tablet or Kindle. Heck, I took my credit card information off of Amazon just so that my “buy with one click” option wouldn’t get me in trouble again.
I know that electronic signatures are legal, due to the 2000 Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Actand the state Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. They’re technically just as good as signing something by paper… in fact, given how easy things are to forge electronic signatures may very well be safer than the real thing.
Tom Gonser certainly thinks so: “E-signatures give the user the ability to prove that a transaction has occurred that’s way beyond what you can do with paper,” Gonser told SecurityNewsDaily.
But an electronic signature still seems so ephemeral to me. That’s okay, though, because the modern world is already moving beyond mere signatures and into the world of biometrics. Biometrics? You know? This kind of thing:
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| Yay!!! Interpretative dance computer interfaces for all! |
Essentially biometrics are any methods for recognizing individuals based on unique physiological (iris or retina recognition, thumb or palm prints, DNA, etc.) or behavioral (typing rhtyhm, gait, voice recognition). Right now if you want biometric scanners for your home computer you’re pretty much limited to just fingerprint scanners unless you happen to be a double O with a fictional M-16… wait, what? Retina scanners are set to go on the market for PC’s any day now?
Nevermind anything I’ve just said. Let’s get this modern technology ball a-rolling.