Response to Digital Agenda for Europe: Electronic identification, authentication and signatures in the European digital single market Public consultation

This is a collaborative submission from a group of academics based in the UK with expertise in information technology law and related areas. The preparation of this response has been funded by the Information Technology Think Tank, which is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by the SCRIPT/AHRC Centre for Research in Intellectual Property and Technology, University of Edinburgh. Note: When people outside the UK in Europe refer to ‘electronic signatures’ they actually mean ‘digital signatures’ (confusingly called the advanced electronic signature in the Directive). Please do not be confused by this, because this form of signature is not used widely, unless people and legal entities are forced by legislation to use them (for articles on their low use until forced to use them, see various issues of the Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review.)