Well, that's the theory behind the newly enacted Electronic Signatures Act, which took effect Oct. 1. But e-commerce experts and area business people say there's a lot of distance between making relatively minor retail transactions on the Internet and electronically sealing major commitments such as buying insurance or a new home or signing up for a mortgage. Even putting down a deposit for a car electronically. I just don't see that happening. It will cut enormous amounts of time out of the equation.
People are worried about security issues and fraud.
If somebody wants to do something fraudulent, they can probably find a way under either system. People are asking for it, maybe because it's the pace that the world is moving nowadays. I don't think that's ever going to be the case. You're going to want to make sure that you need original signatures on certain documents. Five years off Frank Prince, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., predicts that it will take at least five years for the act to have much impact in the business world because of implementation problems and legal challenges.