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Participant
March 22, 2023
Question

sending documents for electronic signature without security/encryption

  • March 22, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 1866 views

Hello,

 

Is there a way to send documents for an electronic signature without security/encryption/password protection of any kind? I did not check the password box, and the signed document that came back to me was still encrypted. I couldn't do anything with it.

 

Thank you!

1 reply

mariahweyne
Inspiring
March 23, 2023

The whole point of using Adobe  Sign is ti have a signed document that nobody can alter.  Hence it will always come back encryted.

Participant
March 23, 2023

Thank you very much for trying to help. I appreciate it your generous attempt to answer.

 

I understood perfectly, however, that must have been Adobe's intention behind my experience of Adobe Sign. I also couldn't help wondering if it is really that remarkably inflexible, which is why I asked. After all, if Adobe always (as far as I can tell) combines multiple files submitted together into one file, then if they really are separate documents someone is going to need to extract each one from the jumbled together big file. That is probably why the person signing would opt for using an electronic signature rather than a digital one (in Acrobat electronic ones do not encrypt or lock files).

 

Obviously Adobe has opted to require that separate documents be submitted separately, even though they also offer the option to submit multiple files and do not explain in the interface that they will always be combined. I guess the idea is that for some reason having to do with "the whole point of Adobe Sign" users just absolutely must submit a series of, say, 20 documents separately so that they do not come back combined into one signed encrypted document that cannot be edited in any way. How submission of a series of documents one by one to the same signatories is efficient must be part of "the whole point of Adobe Sign," but it just seems arbitrary and anti-usability to me.

 

The whole point of having a choice between an electronic signature and a digital signature escapes me if they both have the same result. I guess maybe it's so that people without an Adobe ID can still sign?

 

Also the checkbox with the option to password protect the document (in the interface to send documents for signature) doesn't seem to do much if the result will always be the same. Maybe there's some point, but it's obviously beyond those of us like me who aren't capable of understanding the suble genius of "the whole point of Adobe Sign."

 

On the other hand maybe usability, along with clarity and thoroughneses in help/documentation, also have a "whole point" that's being missed by those who make these decisions (or agree with them) about what "the whole point of Adobe Sign" is? Just a thought. Because I did notice that plenty of others user on this forum and elsehwere on the internet had the same questions I did. I even noticed signs of frustration. So clearly whoever thought up "the whole point of Adobe Sign" missed some things that would cause users problems.