Re: [legalxml-enotary-comment] Public Comment

This is a good point. I think to some degree, the NNA (and many others') model assumes a trust in the original wrapper technology that the notary receives. That is, the document is sent to the notary with a secure wrapper and the notary appends the signature and notarization to it, probably also wrapping them.

In the paper world, this document is handed over to the signer or requester of the notarization (title company, law firm) and they forward it. Except for Notary Signing Agents, the notarized document is rarely under the notary's control.

Could a direct transmission to the signer or document owner from the notary be sufficient for you? In that way, you may be able to review the document before passing it on. It would also seem reasonable, if the document was not passed to the signer, that the signer would get copies of the document - hard copy and/or electronic. Again, that's the way it's most often done today when the signer is not the party forwarding the document on, as in lending situations.

Comment from: ashtong@adelphia.net

I notice there is little comment in this TC's

documents about ownership and control of the

hardware and software used by a contract party to

digitally execute a document. It appears that

the NNA's model is to execute the document on

a computer owned by a notary, using software

supplied by a notary. As a wary potential

seller of real estate, I would want to transfer

the document to my own computer and view it

with open source software that I have obtained

from what I view as a reliable source. I would

then execute it using the same software. Finally

I would transfer it to the notary's computer

so the notary could sign the certificate of

acknowledgement.

It is much like the problem of electronic voting

machines. I cannot be sure that what is recorded

on a computer disk corresponds to what appears on

a computer screen unless it is MY disk and MY

screen under MY exclusive control.

Gerry Ashton

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