For over a decade, Entrust has offered document signing certificates as part of our certificate portfolio. These certificates contain verified information about their owner, and are issued under the Adobe Approved Trusted List (AATL) scheme.

In most countries around the world, these certificates are considered legally binding. They are becoming more and more popular as organizations switch from traditional signing processes to digital processes.

Example of digitally signed document

An example of signed PDF document in Adobe Reader

It is therefore crucial for us as a public Certification Authority to thoroughly verify the identity of the person or organization requesting such a certificate. That’s why a video identification session is included in the certificate enrolment process.

How it works

Remote video identification is very similar to how you would identify yourself in person at a bank or government institution.

Entrust offers different types of document signing certificate products, and the person to verify will be different depending on the type of certificate requested:

  • Document signing certificates issued to individuals require verification on a per-person basis. If you are purchasing a certificate for yourself, or if your organization is looking to issue certificates to multiple individuals so that they can sign PDFs, each individual will need to complete a one-time video verification session before the certificate can be issued.
  • Document signing certificates issued to an organization (or a group/department within an organization) require a video verification of an authorized contact, who acts as a representative for the organization that is applying for the certificate.

In both cases, there is no need to book a session in advance. You will simply receive a link to start the video verification at your convenience. The process takes about 5 minutes and your certificate will be issued shortly after.

Partnering with WebID

WebID is an industry leader in the remote identity verification space, offering next-generation software that can check identity cards and passports to make sure they are legitimate. WebID relies on Entrust for their document signing certificates and video identification.

Example of video verification for document signing

Starting your video identification session with WebID

They also offer many ways for end users to complete their remote video identification with a verification agent who has been trained by U.S. federal law enforcement to do identity verification. WebID is used by some of the largest organizations around the world for video verification use cases such as setting up a new bank account, signing contracts, and government identification.

Learn more

To learn more, go to our document signing certificates webpage, or contact us for more information about video verification.