SIGNiX Attends PRIA Conference as an eNotary Expert

SIGNiX’s Director of Business Development, Brian Felker, presented eNotaryDoX™ — an online notary solution — at the Property Records Industry Association (PRIA) 2016 Annual Conference in Dubuque, IA on August 25. More than 180 PRIA members, industry leaders and speakers attended the conference to learn about the challenges and opportunities for the property records industry and participated in cutting-edge technology discussions.

SIGNiX was invited to present at the PRIA conference as an expert in online remote notarization, to educate government employees and businesses on the benefits and features of remote and in-person electronic notarization. During a general session, SIGNiX demonstrated eNotaryDoX™ and participated in a panel to answer questions from conference attendees. eNotaryDoX™ converts the traditional process of notarization to a completely electronic process using our patented digital signature technology. This technology transforms the in-person notary process to facilitate remote notarization with the help of video conferencing.

Buzz topics among participants at the conference included conversations about eRecording, the process of submitting documents—like deeds, mortgage documents, liens, etc.— for recording online and having them reviewed, recorded, and returned to the submitter electronically. As of July 31, 2016, there are 1,511 counties that are eRecording. “The property records professionals that are e-recording are also starting to hear more about eNotary,” said Brian. “Attending and presenting at the conference as an eNotary expert was a great opportunity to educate the property records industry about the security and validity of electronic notarization.”

Although remote online notarization isn’t yet legislated by governments outside of Virginia and Montana, in-person e-notarization is gaining ground alongside eRecording. Because the objective of PRIA is to develop standards and best practices for the industry, the Board of Directors has created a task force to uncover the best format to use when eRecording, a TIFF file or a PDF file. While both files are currently accepted, and only specified by individual recorders, there is a convincing argument to choose PDF over TIFF.

Every time a document is e-signed and e-notarized using SIGNiX’s technology, the legal evidence from every step of the transaction is recorded in an audit trail and also permanently embedded into the PDF. Each signed PDF is tamper evident. If a document is altered, even something as simple as deleting a space or capitalizing a word, there’s proof that tampering took place. If a PDF is submitted tamper-free, the document will show a small green check mark at the top corner of the document. This valuable feature of PDF files is not available in TIFF images, and informed recorders recognize these small green check marks as an indication that the signature on the document is valid.

By participating in the PRIA conference, we were able to provide insight and education to attendees that will help the industry develop best practices to enhance the efficiency of document execution and recording.

To learn more about the benefits of eNotary, download this free fact sheet.