The moment of accession to the European Union may change a lot in the practice of using electronic signatures in the Polish economy. The Polish legal framework, which turns out to be unfavorable to the use of this tool in business practice, may now become a source of threats to the Polish economy. Many problems have their source in poor preparation for the use of modern technologies and substantive errors being made.
Freedom to use electronic signature technology
One of the fundamental principles postulated by the European Union Directive on electronic signatures is the limitation of state interference. The Directive does not enter the area of civil-law contracts and the issue of electronic signatures in closed systems. The rules for using this technology are to be determined by the interested parties themselves.
In Poland, it is different, and this constitutes a very significant formal and legal barrier. For example, one of the most important fields of application for an electronic signature is its use for authenticating internal correspondence and document flow in large organizations. The Polish Act on Electronic Signatures has, in essence, made the matter very complicated.
Let us assume, for example, that a state university wanted to streamline the administrative service of its own students. Technological issues are not a problem. The existing infrastructure allows for the electronization of most administrative contacts between a student and the university (enrollment for classes, registration for exams). Correspondence generated for this purpose can be cheaply and reliably secured using an electronic signature. This brings significant improvement in administrative service and cost reduction.
However, we encounter problems in the formal and legal area. The issuance of a public key certificate to a specific person is, in the sense of the Act, a “certification service”. This, in turn, can only be provided on the basis of a contract concluded between the entity issuing the certificate and the owner of the public key. Thus, in order to electronize contacts with students, one must first perform a series of actions provided for by the Act on Electronic Signatures – including those performed in person. Worse still, it turns out that a state university has no right at all to provide certification services – including to its own students and employees – the Act explicitly lists who can provide such services. The university would have to hire an external company. All this increases costs and calls into question the sense of the entire operation.
The article comes from the magazine “e-Fakty” 1/2004.