Effective 01/02/2026
Electronic (digital) signatures are widely accepted in Australia and many other jurisdictions as a lawful and practical alternative to paper-based signing for contracts and documents.
PleaseSign provides an electronic signature and document workflow platform for individual and business use. The PleaseSign platform is designed to support the legal requirements applicable to electronic transactions under relevant Australian and international legislation, including:
In addition to Australian legislation, PleaseSign is designed to support the requirements of the United States Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA).
Under Australian law, a handwritten signature is not the only means by which parties may be legally bound to a contract. Contracts are generally enforceable where parties reach agreement, whether that agreement is recorded verbally, electronically, or on paper.
The Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth) confirms that, provided certain requirements are met and no relevant exception applies, a transaction or contract cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is conducted electronically.
Electronic signature platforms may generate electronic records and audit trails that can be relied upon by users to support the existence, authenticity, and acceptance of a contract, subject to applicable law.
PleaseSign supports the authentication of parties involved in a document by controlling access to documents and recording signer actions.
A person signing a document through the PleaseSign service must either:
Authentication through PleaseSign is based on access control, delivery mechanisms, and recorded signer activity. PleaseSign does not, by default, verify a signer’s legal identity unless identity verification is specifically enabled by a PleaseSign user.
All information transmitted through the PleaseSign platform is protected using industry-standard encryption in transit.
Where enabled by a PleaseSign user, identity verification may be required before or during the signing process.
Identity verification is a separate and optional process from electronic signing and may include government-issued identity document checks, electronic data matching, or biometric verification, subject to availability and jurisdiction.
Identity verification is intended to support a PleaseSign user’s assessment of identity and document authenticity. It does not guarantee identity certainty and does not determine the legal validity or enforceability of a document or signature. Personal information collected during identity verification is handled in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
Each document processed through the PleaseSign platform is monitored, tracked, and recorded in an electronic audit trail.
This audit trail may include:
Audit trails generated by PleaseSign are non-editable system records and are created in the ordinary course of platform operation.
PleaseSign is designed to help protect documents from unauthorised modification during and after the signing process.
Using cryptographic hashing technology, PleaseSign generates a unique hash of the document prior to signing. Each completed document includes a final cryptographic hash that can be compared against the document to determine whether it has been altered since completion.
PleaseSign records a comprehensive transaction log of document-related events. Events are time-stamped and processed using cryptographic techniques to support the integrity of the transaction history.
These records are intended to support evidentiary review but do not, of themselves, determine admissibility or legal effect.
PleaseSign securely stores and backs up documents, data, and related assets using cloud infrastructure hosted in ISO/IEC27001-certified data centres located in Australia.
Primary storage is zone-restricted to the ap-southeast-2 (Sydney) region. Security controls are implemented to help protect data against unauthorised access, loss, or misuse.
PleaseSign does not provide legal advice and does not determine whether any document, electronic signature, or identity verification record is legally valid, enforceable, or admissible in evidence.
The legal effect, enforceability, and evidentiary weight of electronic records and signatures are determined by applicable law and by courts, tribunals, or regulators, not by PleaseSign.
