Why You Need Privacy-First eSignatures in Sales

Sales are the lifeblood of most businesses. 

Without sales, there is no business. In a world where time is money, and identity theft and digital crime, in general, are rising sharply, an effective, efficient, and secure way to legally sign sales documents of any kind becomes more important than ever before. 

Only by using a privacy-first eSignature solution for your sales do you get the best of both worlds: A significantly faster sales cycle by improving the efficiency of the signing process, but also 100% guaranteed privacy to preserve your confidential sales data. 

eSignatures are a significant improvement over old-school wet signatures. And if done right, including preserving your privacy, they can be a hugely valuable tool to increase efficiency and shorten your business’s sales cycle. 

Here’s How eSignatures Help You Digitize Sales 

In sales, all that matters is getting the client’s signature. 

Of course – the signature is preceded by a fair negotiation, and what follows is the delivery of the goods or services the client signed for. But getting that signature is the pivotal point – that’s when the sale is made. That’s when you have a deal. 

Salespeople usually put all their effort into selling the actual product and don’t want to be bothered with the administration part of the deal. Therefore, the last thing anyone wants is to have a hold-up or cumbersome process when it comes to signing the deal after what could be weeks of tough negotiations. 

Moving from wet signatures to an eSignature solution can make the legal part of any sale a breeze.

• In a globally interconnected world, chances are your customers aren’t physically near you. In fact, depending on what you sell, you might never see them at all.
• Using eSignatures allows you to get valid, legal signatures from any customer anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. 
• Is your office on a small island in the Caribbean? No problem – your customer can sign in seconds. 
• They are working from home, from a small chalet tucked away in the Swiss alps? No issue – as long as there’s internet access, they can sign. 

Then there’s the issue of changes: The more complex the deal, the more likely your customers are to ask for changes. Rarely ever do customers sign the first version of a document.

• With an eSignature solution, changes are a matter of seconds. 
• Simply change the underlying digital document, and prepare it for signature by your customer again. No need to print, manually write, or mail anything. 
• And if you send a document that does need changes, invalidating it is simply the click of a button, so your customers know there’s a new document coming up and don’t get confused with different versions.

However, while the benefits of eSignatures are undeniable, they do come with a risk many eSignature providers don’t pay enough attention to: If it’s digital, it can be intercepted. Any signature document you send anywhere unencrypted presents a major risk for your privacy and could have devastating results, fallen into the wrong hands. 

Here’s Why You Need Privacy-First eSignatures in Sales

Sales documents often contain highly confidential information. Unfortunately, eSignatures are not safe by default: Only a privacy-first provider who offers full end-to-end encryption can be trusted with your most sensitive data. 

What’s the issue, you may ask? If you’re sending sales documents without any encryption, there’s not a single issue but an entire list of them.  

A privacy-first eSignature provider…	What that means for you
Offers full end-to-end encryption	Only you and your recipients have access
Will never ask for your encryption key	The key to accessing your documents is private
Don’t ever ask for any privilege	Nobody has the privilege to read your documents
Can keep your data safe from prying eyes	Your sales documents are for your eyes only
Does not offer document management tools	No AI gets access to your documents
Does not make you use no-sign lists	You can send any document for signature
Does not have any backdoor access	There is no way to circumvent your encryption
Will keep your documents secure in the future	You don’t have to worry about any security breaches – your documents are safe

If that list has gotten you worried, that’s normal: It should. Let’s look at each item to see why it’s important in order to maintain your privacy. 

Here’s what any eSignature provider focused on your privacy should be doing. 

They offer proper, end-to-end encryption

The only way to keep your documents safe is by encrypting them end-to-end, using asymmetric encryption. Unfortunately, encryption has become somewhat of a buzzword often used in clever marketing. But unless it’s asymmetric, end-to-end encryption, meaning all documents get encrypted on your local device with a unique key not shared with anyone, there are loopholes in the process that can – and will – be abused by bad actors. 

Your sales documents should be for your eyes only. So next time you read encryption, make sure it’s the right kind: Because anything short of asymmetric end-to-end encryption sounds good on paper but potentially leaves all your documents open for anyone to read. 

They never ever ask for your encryption key

No, it’s not a joke: Some providers ask you to send the encryption key along with the encrypted documents. Often sold as convenient, doing so is nothing short of reckless: If anyone can get their hands on your encrypted documents as well as the key to decrypt them without having to look any further, the temptation may simply be too big. 

Would you lock your front door and hide the key on the doorstep, in plain sight? It simply makes no sense. This is another reason why asymmetric encryption is the only way to go: In this type of encryption, the keys to encrypt and decrypt are not the same, meaning even if someone could get a hold of your encryption key, they still could not decrypt your documents.  

They have a “rule of no privilege”

Even though sold as a good thing, the ominous “rule of least privilege” in essence only means that someone has access to your data. The idea is good: Only employees at your eSignature provider who absolutely need it should have access to your unencrypted documents, as opposed to anyone working there. But it does beg the question: Why would anyone need access to your documents in the first place, and how can they get it?

The privilege to access your documents unencrypted should be yours and yours alone. Don’t fall for complex legal speech or endless small print: “Least privilege” is defined by the provider without you having any say in the matter. That not only means they have access to your documents in the first place but also that you’d never know who exactly is currently holding said privilege.  

They keep your documents safe from prying eyes

From your neighbor to a rogue employee, from your ISP to any friendly government: Many players can potentially intercept your sensitive sales documents – and read them if they are unencrypted. Your home WiFi can be intercepted. A terminated employee could grab any data available before leaving your eSignature provider. Your ISP is likely listening in on your internet traffic – and there’s a good chance your own government can tap into your data streams and even legally share them with other countries as part of agreements like the US CLOUD Act. 

Ultimately, it does not matter who wants to access your data: It should simply be impossible. With an everchanging legal, political and technological landscape, it becomes a herculean task to keep track of the current rules and risks. Do yourself a favor and don’t bother – by simply picking the right kind of eSignature provider. 

They do not offer any document management tools

Smart tools need access to your unencrypted documents to do their job. And while there is no doubt that tools like “Life-cycle management and analytics” or “Proposal management software” can be useful in saving you a few minutes every time you create a document, the fact that the AI behind those tools reads and analyzes every single word you write should be a concern to you. 

Is a little bit of saved time really worth risking the privacy of your most sensitive sales documents? Even if you assume that the algorithms behind those tools are only designed to help you and don’t share your data with anyone or anything else, what about the people who developed and constantly improve those algorithms? Where does the sharing of your data really stop? 

They do not make you use no-sign lists

If you’re forced to consult a no-sign list, you’re using the wrong eSignature provider. Many businesses, particularly the ones working with lots of sensitive information (which, let’s be honest, most of what you send for signature probably is) have resorted to no-sign lists: Those are lists of document types that are not allowed to be sent for eSignature due to fear of a privacy breach. 

If you can’t trust your eSignature provider with some documents, who says you can trust them with any documents at all? The nuisance of ever-changing no-sign lists is significant, and the potential for human error is even bigger. And since the most complex documents tend to be the most confidential ones, using old-school alternatives for just those is a huge and unnecessary waste of time. 

They do not have any backdoor access to your data

Even if you trust your eSignature provider: If they have any kind of backdoor access to your documents, there is a significant risk to your privacy. It does not matter whether it’s through a “rule of least privilege,” by asking you send along your keys, or by simply offering “smart” tools to manage your documents: If there is a backdoor way to bypass your encryption, it likely will be abused at some stage. 

There is no such thing as perfect security. If your provider has a way to access your data, someone else can use that same method. Or someone could force – legally or illegally – your provider to hand over the keys to your documents. The result is the same: Your data is now breached, with unforeseen consequences. 

They are future proof

Statistically speaking, your eSignature provider will eventually be compromised. Especially if you’re using a large, popular eSignature provider, the target on their back is simply huge. Any hacker group knows the treasure trove of valuable information they hold, and therefore the risk of an attack is significant. And no matter how well designed their security system: Anyone can get hacked. And anyone will – eventually.

It’s a cat-and-mouse game your provider cannot win. No matter what new security measures they put in place, some smart hacker group somewhere will quickly find a way to circumvent them. Whether it’s tomorrow or six months into the future: The only way to truly protect your sensitive sales documents is by encrypting them before they ever leave your computer.  

The Bottom Line

eSignatures are of immense value for anyone involved in sales: They are efficient, flexible, and don’t care about location – neither of the sender nor the recipient. Used correctly, they can shorten any sales cycle significantly, ultimately benefitting the business’s bottom line. 

But those gains often come at the expense of security and privacy: Unless your eSignature provider is offering proper, asymmetric end-to-end encryption, there your sales documents are encrypted on your local machine, and the key is not shared with anyone except your recipient, there is a good chance someone will get a hold of and ready your documents. 

It could be your neighbor. It could be an attack on your company network with the goal of corporate espionage. It could be your provider reading your documents to “improve the workflow.” Or it could even be an allied government of your own, legally gaining access to all your data. 

The best-case scenario is a bunch of bureaucrats going through your documents. The worst-case scenario is the threat of publishing your most sensitive sales data unless you pay a ransom by some anonymous hacker group. 

Whatever the scenario – it’s not worth risking. Keep your peace of mind and streamline your sales operation at the same time by picking the right eSignature provider.