What that means is that no one is able to tamper with the data that was filled in the form fields after a signature is applied; not to be confused with flattening or refrying the PDF document.
It basically sets a precedent in which the person who signs becomes responsible, and therefore, is certifying with that signature that the terms expressed in such document are good to go.
The problem that you are concerned with deals with the following two aspects:
1) That the file that you are sending for signatures is not really restricted from any editing , and will remain unprotected in terms of editing because anyone who owns/use an Acrobat Pro paid subscription (or even with a 7-day trial version) can edit the file.
It all goes back to who was the original creator of the form.
In my case for example, we had a problem at work that many individual users of the form where signing the document with a bunch of errors, which in return made it impossible for me to meet the approval timelines since I had to kick them back for them to remove the signatures. Then email back to me to make corrections, then I would email back to them to collect their signatures, then they emailed back to me so I can forward to a higher authority for review... THEN, if that supervisor found errors again we would have to restart this whole stupid and loooong process again. I hated it... the whole nine yards.
So, what the original creator of this form did to avoid delaying the approval processing, he/she created an approving managers signature block . But in that signature field he added some settings that allowed him to sign that field, then clear the signature; upon clearing the signature everything was cleared out in that form... except!!! the fields that were already signed by the customers.
With this tactic he was able to do the necessary corrections for the customers(even if the forms were digitally signed), get it apporved, and send up to the big boss for final approval.
Now, this is highly convenient when you are just one person processing hundreds of documents a month that are always turned in last minute and that, above all things, you cannot delay the request nor the ordering process...
Did the customer knew that this was an actual business practice? Of course not... Did the customers care ? No. The customers did not care as long as what they were signing for was approved and delivered quickly.
The problem begun when the customers discovered the signing field that was configured to do that and then they started abusing it. It became an serious ethical issue.
No one has gone to jail (yet). But that is why you should send this forms as Reader Extended so no user is allowed to edit or see any scripting or code .
The worst damage they will do (if they dare to do so) is to refry the document and read their own fields again; which you will notice the difference visually and through other methods.
2) The second aspect is Editing.
There is an ambivalent aspect in what exactly underlies as unethical if the original creator of the PDF file had good intentions (like the example above).
But then again, in which case, how far a less ethical person will use Adobe Acrobat Pro, for example, to create a "Reset Form" button that will clear everything but the signed signature fields.This will allow to change all the content at will while preserving the digitally signed fields that are already stamped with time and date.
That is a problem that I had to battle for almost a year in my workplace.
So my workaround was to become the sole and only creator of my forms. I had to recreate my own forms from scratch and I didn't even use MS Word templates or export to PDF from any other program(s)...
I created my forms entirely in PDF, then I flattened the file, then I added my fields, then I added all my scripts to it, Save the forms as Reader extended and that is what my users have to sign now regardless if they like it or not
(i will never ever send an original unprotected form to user that was created with Acrobat Pro as an Adobe Acrobat Pro file---I will always convert them to Reader Extended).
I also have 100 % support from my supervisors which has helped tremendously alleviate this ethical issue that was going on for so long.
So, going back to the signing order...
In my form(s) the assigned signing order implies that the last higher supervisor's signature fields converts everything to readonly up to that point. And the very last BIG BOSS supervisor signature field will convert the whole document to readonly as soon as his/her signature is applied.
Just remember this is not the same as refrying or flattening the document; as soon as that signture is removed from that field so will the read-only restrictions.
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