Verify a signed contract

Every completed contract is sealed by Workspace369. The seal is a digital signature and trusted timestamps added to the PDF, so anyone holding the file can check that it came from Workspace369 and has not been changed since. There are two ways to check.

What the sealed PDF contains

• The signed document, with every value drawn into the page.
• A Certificate of Completion at the end: who took part, their role, how each person verified, when they consented and signed, and the fingerprint of the original and completed document.
• The evidence record attached inside the PDF: the event history up to the moment of sealing.
• The seal itself: a PAdES long-term signature with trusted timestamps, which keeps validating after the signing certificate expires.

Check on the verify page

1. Open 369.dev/verify.
2. Drop the PDF on the page, or choose it.

The page computes the file fingerprint in your browser. The file itself is never uploaded.

• A match shows the contract title, the workspace, the completion date, the signers with partly hidden emails, and the seal level.
• No match reads "This file was not issued by Workspace369 E-Signature, or it has been changed since it was sealed."
• A contract whose record was permanently deleted by its owner still shows that Workspace369 issued it, with its completion date.

The standalone Certificate of Completion PDF can be checked the same way.

Check in Adobe Acrobat Reader

1. Open the sealed PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
2. Open the signature panel from the blue bar at the top of the document.
3. Confirm that the panel reports the signatures as valid, that the document has not been modified since it was signed, and that the signature is LTV enabled.

The seal certificate chains to Adobe's list of trusted certificate authorities, so Reader trusts it without any setup. Any edit to the file after sealing, even saving it with other software, makes Reader report that the document has been changed.

Download the evidence in Workspace369

Members with permission to view the audit trail can open a completed contract and download:

• the sealed PDF;
• the standalone Certificate of Completion;
• the evidence file, a machine-readable copy of the event history.

The History tab recomputes the chain of events and reads "Audit trail intact", or names the first event that was altered.

What verification does and does not show

Verification shows that the file is exactly what Workspace369 sealed, and when. It does not show that the content of the agreement is fair or enforceable, and it does not replace legal advice. See E-signature legal basis and security.