Terms of service

SignClearly lets you upload a PDF, place fields on it and send it to one recipient, who signs it in a browser. You can also sign your own document in your account. You get back the signed PDF with a certificate page and an event log.

• When a recipient signs from a link, SignClearly records that the signing link sent to their email address was used. Anyone who has the link can use it, for example if the email was forwarded, so this does not prove who signed. You can add an access code that you give the recipient another way, such as by phone. This is a simple electronic signature (SES).
• If you require an ID check, you must enter the recipient's name. Before signing, the recipient verifies their identity with an identity verification service, for example with photos of an ID document and a selfie, or with an electronic ID, depending on what the service offers. The name on the ID must match the name you entered, or the check fails. The recipient has up to 3 check attempts per signing link.
• When the recipient passes the ID check and signs with a key created in their browser, SignClearly labels the signature an advanced electronic signature (AES). Without that key, a signature with an ID check stays an SES.
• Signing your own document in your account is always an SES.
• No signature made with SignClearly is a qualified electronic signature (QES). SignClearly is not a qualified trust service provider.

Whether an electronic signature is accepted depends on the country, the type of document and what the parties agreed. Some documents, such as wills or some court and family law documents, may need a handwritten or a qualified signature. You decide whether a signature made with SignClearly suits your document. We do not promise that a court, an authority or the other party will accept it.

We do not give legal advice. We are not a party to the documents you send or sign, and we do not check what they say.

When SignClearly's own certificate authority is turned on, each signature is made with a certificate issued for that one signature. We revoke certificates that were issued but never used for a signature. The document owner, or the signer named in a certificate, can ask us to revoke it (see the privacy policy). A revocation does not change the signed PDF or the status of the document, but programs that check PDF signatures then show the certificate as revoked. We do not judge how a revocation affects the signature or the agreement.

• You sign in with a one-time link that we email to you. There is no password. A link works once and for 15 minutes, and only the latest link you requested works.
• Requesting a sign-in link creates an account for that email address.
• Anyone who can read your email can sign in to your account. Keep your mailbox secure, and tell us if you think someone else used your account.
• You are responsible for what is done in your account.
• If you add a name to your profile, recipients see it as the sender of your documents. Use your own name or the name of the organisation you act for.

When you use SignClearly:

• Do not upload or send content that is unlawful or that infringes someone else's rights.
• Do not sign for someone else, forge a signature, or send a document in someone else's name without their permission.
• Do not use SignClearly for fraud or phishing, or to mislead recipients about who you are or what they sign.
• Do not use SignClearly to send spam or unwanted mass messages.
• Do not upload files made to harm our systems or other people's devices, such as PDFs with malware or exploits.
• Do not try to get into other people's accounts or documents, or to get around access codes, ID checks, limits or payment. Do not test our security or interfere with the service without our permission.
• Do not sign through automation software. Signing pages refuse browsers that report being controlled by automation.

We may block an account that breaks these rules (see “Blocking and closing an account”).

You keep all rights to the documents you upload. You allow us to store, process and send them, and to change them as described below, only as needed to provide SignClearly to you and your recipients.

• When you upload a PDF, we remove content that runs or opens something when the file is viewed: scripts, automatic actions, embedded files, XFA forms, actions that launch programs, open other files, send form data or play media, and links that are not http or https. The document's event log records what was removed.
• If nothing is removed, we keep the file exactly as you uploaded it. If anything is removed, the file is rewritten, and digital signatures that were already in it will no longer validate.
• The signed PDF gets the signature, the field values and a certificate page. When they are turned on, it also gets a SignClearly platform seal and timestamps.

You are responsible for:

• what your documents say, and having the right to upload them and send them for signature;
• having a lawful reason to give us your recipient's name and email address and to send them a signing link;
• choosing the right recipient and the right kind of signature for the document.

The signing page tells recipients that they can decline to sign and can ask you for a paper copy or another way to sign. Arrange that with them directly.

• A draft with no uploaded file is deleted after 24 hours. A draft that nobody edited for 30 days is deleted together with its file. You can delete a draft yourself at any time.
• Once you send a document, you cannot delete it. It stays in your account together with its event log.
• Download and keep your own copy of each signed PDF. The recipient's link to download the signed copy works for 7 days after signing.

You pay for documents with credits, and you buy credits in packs. Each pack is a single payment. There is no subscription, and nothing renews automatically.

• The pricing and Billing pages show the current packs, their prices and currency, and how many credits a document costs. A document with an ID check costs more credits than one without.
• You pay on the page of our payment provider, Platega, and choose the payment method there. We add the credits when Platega confirms the payment, not when you return from its page.
• Credits are taken once per document: when you send it for signature, or when you start signing your own document. Resending the invitation and reminders cost nothing.
• If a document closes without a signature because the recipient declined, you revoked it or its signing link expired, its credits go back to your balance.
• With an ID check, a credit stays used for each ID check attempt that got a decision, passed or failed, because the identity service charges for those attempts. A check that failed because the name did not match counts too. No more stays used than the document cost. Attempts that were abandoned or ran out of time without a decision do not count.
• A signed document does not return credits.
• Credits do not expire while your account exists. Credits left on your balance are deleted together with the account (see “Blocking and closing an account”). Whether inactive accounts are deleted is set out in the privacy policy.
• Credits pay only for documents in SignClearly, and you cannot move them to another account.
• If the money for a purchase is returned to you after the credits were added, for example after a chargeback, we remove as many credits as the purchase added, or all credits left on your balance if there are fewer.
• If a payment is disputed or partly refunded, or Platega confirms it after the purchase expired, we review it by hand and may correct your balance. Corrections appear in your billing history as an adjustment.
• If you were charged but no credits were added, write to us (see “Contact”).

We work to keep SignClearly running, but we do not promise that it will always be available or free of errors. Maintenance, failures at our providers and attacks can interrupt it.

We may change, add or remove features. Some features, such as the ID check, work only when they are switched on, and we may switch them off.

To the extent the law allows, SignClearly is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, including that it fits a particular purpose or that a signature made with it will be accepted.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law does not allow to be limited, such as liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Apart from that, and to the extent the law allows:

• we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profits, lost business, lost data or loss of goodwill;
• we are not liable for loss caused by the content of your documents, by your recipients, by a court, an authority or another party not accepting a signature, or by events outside our reasonable control;
• our total liability for all claims about SignClearly is limited to the amount you paid us for credits in the 12 months before the event that led to the claim.

You can stop using SignClearly at any time. To delete your account, ask us (see “Contact”). Download the signed PDFs you need first. Deleting the account deletes your documents, files, event logs, payment records and the credits left on your balance. What stays after deletion is described in the privacy policy.

We may block your account if you break these terms, if the law requires it, or to protect SignClearly, recipients or other users. A blocked account cannot sign in, its sessions end, and sign-in links already sent stop working.

We may change these terms. The date at the top of this page shows the last change.