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Configure an Identity Check Policy for digital identities

 

Adobe Acrobat Sign Guide

What's New

  1. Pre-Release Notes
  2. Release Notes
  3. Important Notifications

Get Started

  1. Quick start guide for administrators
  2. Quick start guide for users
  3. For Developers
  4. Video tutorial library
  5. FAQ

Administer

  1. Admin Console Overview
  2. User Management
    1. Adding users
      1. Add a User
      2. Add Users in Bulk
      3. Add Users from your Directory
      4. Add Users from MS Azure Active Directory
    2. Create function-focused users
      1. Technical accounts - API driven
      2. Service accounts - Manually driven
    3. Check for users with provisioning errors
    4. Change Name/Email Address
    5. Edit a user's group membership
    6. Edit a user's group membership through the group interface
    7. Promote a user to an admin role
    8. User Identity Types and SSO
    9. Switch User Identity
    10. Authenticate Users with MS Azure
    11. Authenticate Users with Google Federation
    12. Product Profiles
    13. Login Experience 
  3. Account/Group Settings
    1. Settings Overview
    2. Global Settings
      1. Account tier and ID
      2. New Recipient Experience
      3. Self Signing Workflows
      4. Send in Bulk
      5. Web Forms
      6. Custom Send Workflows
      7. Power Automate Workflows
      8. Library Documents
      9. Collect form data with agreements
      10. Limited Document Visibility
      11. Attach a PDF copy of the signed agreement 
      12. Include a link in the email
      13. Include an image in the email
      14. Files attached to email will be named as
      15. Attach audit reports to documents
      16. Merge multiple documents into one
      17. Download individual documents
      18. Upload a signed document
      19. Delegation for users in my account
      20. Allow external recipients to delegate
      21. Authority to sign
      22. Authority to send
      23. Power to add Electronic Seals
      24. Set a default time zone
      25. Set a default date format
      26. Users in Multiple Groups (UMG)
        1. Upgrade to use UMG
      27. Group Administrator Permissions
      28. Replace recipient
      29. Audit Report
        1. Overview
        2. Allow unauthenticated access on the transaction verification page
        3. Include reminders
        4. Include view events
        5. Include agreement page/attachment count
      30. Transaction Footer
      31. In Product Messaging and Guidance
      32. Accessible PDFs
      33. New authoring experience
      34. Healthcare customer
    3. Account Setup
      1. Add logo
      2. Customize company Hostname/URL    
      3. Add company name
      4. Post agreement URL redirect
    4. Signature Preferences
      1. Well formatted signatures
      2. Allow recipients to sign by
      3. Signers can change their name
      4. Allow recipients to use their saved signature
      5. Custom Terms of Use and Consumer Disclosure
      6. Navigate recipients through form fields
      7. Restart agreement workflow
      8. Decline to sign
      9. Allow Stamps workflows
      10. Require signers to provide their Title or Company
      11. Allow signers to print and place a written signature
      12. Show messages when e-signing
      13. Require signers to use a mobile device to create their signature
      14. Request IP address from signers
      15. Exclude company name and title from participation stamps
    5. Digital Signatures
      1. Overview
      2. Download and sign with Acrobat
      3. Sign with Cloud Signatures
      4. Include metadata for Identity Providers
      5. Restricted Cloud Signatures Providers
    6. Electronic Seals
    7. Digital Identity
      1. Digital Identity Gateway
      2. Identity Check policy
    8. Report Settings
      1. New report experience
      2. Classic report settings
    9. Security Settings
      1. Single Sign-on settings
      2. Remember-me settings
      3. Login password policy
      4. Login password strength
      5. Web session duration
      6. PDF encryption type
      7. API
      8. User and group info access
      9. Allowed IP Ranges
      10. Account Sharing
      11. Account sharing permissions
      12. Agreement sharing controls
      13. Signer identity verification
      14. Agreement signing password
      15. Document password strength
      16. Block signers by Geolocation
      17. Phone Authentication
      18. Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA)
      19. Allow page extraction
      20. Document link expiration
      21. Upload a client certificate for webhooks/callbacks
      22. Timestamp
    10. Send settings
      1. Show Send page after login
      2. Require recipient name when sending
      3. Lock name values for known users
      4. Allowed recipient roles
      5. Allow e-Witnesses
      6. Recipient groups
      7. CCs
      8. Recipient Agreement Access
      9. Required fields
      10. Attaching documents
      11. Field flattening
      12. Modify Agreements
      13. Agreement name
      14. Languages
      15. Private messages
      16. Allowed signature types
      17. Reminders
      18. Signed document password protection
      19. Send Agreement Notification through
      20. Signer identification options
        1. Overview
        2. Signing password
        3. One-Time Password via Email
        4. Acrobat Sign authentication
        5. Phone authentication
        6. Cloud-based digital signature
        7. Knowledge-based authentication
        8. Government ID
        9. Signer Identity reports
      21. Content Protection
      22. Enable Notarize transactions
      23. Document Expiration
      24. Preview, position signatures, and add fields
      25. Signing order
      26. Liquid mode
      27. Custom workflow controls
      28. Upload options for the e-sign page
      29. Post-sign confirmation URL redirect
    11. Message Templates
    12. Bio-Pharma Settings
      1. Overview
      2. Enforce identity authentication
      3. Signing reasons
    13. Workflow Integration
    14. Notarization Settings
    15. Payments Integration
    16. Signer Messaging
    17. SAML Settings
      1. SAML Configuration
      2. Install Microsoft Active Directory Federation Service
      3. Install Okta
      4. Install OneLogin
      5. Install Oracle Identity Federation
    18. Data Governance
    19. Time Stamp Settings
    20. External Archive
    21. Account Languages
    22. Email Settings
      1. Email header/footer images
      2. Permit individual user email footers
      3. Customize the Signature Requested email
      4. Customize the To and CC fields
      5. Enable Linkless Notifications
      6. Customize email templates
    23. Migrating from echosign.com to adobesign.com
    24. Configure Options for Recipients
  4. Guidance for regulatory requirements
    1. Accessibility
      1. Accessibility Compliance
      2. Create accessible forms with Acrobat desktop
      3. Create accessible AcroForms
    2. HIPAA
    3. GDPR
      1. GDPR Overview
      2. Redact a user
      3. Redact a user's agreements    
    4. 21 CFR part 11 and EudraLex Annex 11
      1. 21 CRF part 11 validation pack
      2. 21 CFR and EudraLex Annex 11 handbook
      3. Analysis of shared responsibilities
    5. Healthcare customers
    6. IVES support
    7. "Vaulting" agreements
    8. EU/UK considerations
      1. EU/UK Cross-border transactions and eIDAS
      2. HMLR requirements for deeds signed electronically
      3. The impact of Brexit on e-signature laws in the UK
  5. Download Agreements in Bulk
  6. Claim your domain 
  7. Report Abuse links

Send, Sign, and Manage Agreements

  1. Recipient Options
    1. Cancel an email reminder
    2. Options on the e-signing page
      1. Overview of the e-sign page
      2. Open to read the agreement without fields
      3. Decline to sign an agreement
      4. Delegate signing authority
      5. Restart the agreement
      6. Download a PDF of the agreement
      7. View the agreement history
      8. View the agreement messages
      9. Convert from an electronic to a written signature
      10. Convert from a written to an electronic signature 
      11. Navigate the form fields
      12. Clear the data from the form fields
      13. E-sign page magnification and navigation
      14. Change the language used in the agreement tools and information
      15. Review the Legal Notices
      16. Adjust Acrobat Sign Cookie Preferences
  2. Send Agreements  
    1. Send page overview
    2. Send an agreement only to yourself
    3. Send an agreement to others
    4. Written Signatures
    5. Recipient signing order
    6. Send in Bulk
      1. Overview of the Send in Bulk feature
      2. Send in Bulk - Configure a parent template
      3. Send in Bulk - Configure the CSV file
      4. Cancel a Send in Bulk transaction
      5. Add reminders to Send in Bulk
      6. Reporting for Send in Bulk
  3. Authoring fields into documents
    1. In-app authoring environment
      1. Automatic field detection
      2. Drag and drop fields using the authoring environment
      3. Assign form fields to recipients
      4. The Prefill role
      5. Apply fields with a reusable field template
      6. Transfer fields to a new library template
      7. Updated authoring environment when sending agreements
    2. Create forms with text tags
    3. Create forms using Acrobat (AcroForms)
      1. AcroForm creation
      2. Creating accessible PDFs
    4. Fields
      1. Field types
        1. Common field types
        2. In-line Images
        3. Stamp Images
      2. Field content appearance
      3. Field validations
      4. Masked fields values
      5. Setting show/hide conditions
      6. Calculated fields 
    5. Authoring FAQ
  4. Sign Agreements
    1. Sign agreements sent to you
    2. Fill & Sign
    3. Self-signing
  5. Manage Agreements
    1. Manage page overview
    2. Delegate agreements
    3. Replace Recipients
    4. Limit Document Visibility 
    5. Cancel an Agreement 
    6. Create new reminders
    7. Review reminders
    8. Cancel a reminder
    9. Access Power Automate flows
    10. More Actions...
      1. How search works
      2. View an agreement
      3. Create a template from an agreement
      4. Hide/Unhide agreements from view
      5. Upload a signed agreement
      6. Modify a sent agreement's files and fields
      7. Edit a recipient's authentication method
      8. Add or modify an expiration date
      9. Add a Note to the agreement
      10. Share an individual agreement
      11. Unshare an agreement
      12. Download an individual agreement
      13. Download the individual files of an agreement
      14. Download the Audit Report of an agreement
      15. Download the field content of an agreement
  6. Audit Report
  7. Reporting and Data exports
    1. Overview
    2. Grant users access to reporting
    3. Report charts
      1. Create a new report
      2. Agreement Reports
      3. Transaction Reports
      4. Settings Activity Report
      5. Edit a report
    4. Data Exports 
      1. Create a new data export
      2. Web form data export
      3. Edit a data export
      4. Refresh the data export content
      5. Download the data export
    5. Rename a report/export
    6. Duplicate a report/export
    7. Schedule a report/export
    8. Delete a report/export
    9. Check Transaction Usage

Advanced Agreement Capabilities and Workflows

  1. Webforms 
    1. Create a web form
    2. Edit a web form
    3. Disable/Enable a web form
    4. Hide/Unhide a web form
    5. Find the URL or script code 
    6. Prefill web form fields with URL parameters
    7. Save a web form to complete later
    8. Resize a web form
  2. Reusable Templates (Library templates) 
    1. US Government forms in the Acrobat Sign library
    2. Create a library template
    3. Change a library template's name
    4. Change a library template's type
    5. Change a library template's permission level
    6. Copy, edit, and save a shared template
    7. Download the aggregate field data for a library template
  3. Transfer ownership of web forms and library templates
  4. Power Automate Workflows 
    1. Overview of the Power Automate integration and included entitlements
    2. Enable the Power Automate integration
    3. In-Context Actions on the Manage page
    4. Track Power Automate usage
    5. Create a new flow (Examples)
    6. Triggers used for flows
    7. Importing flows from outside Acrobat Sign
    8. Manage flows
    9. Edit flows
    10. Share flows
    11. Disable or Enable flows
    12. Delete flows
    13. Useful Templates
      1. Administrator only
        1. Save all completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save all completed documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save all completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save all completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save all completed documents to Box
      2. Agreement archival
        1. Save your completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save your completed documents to One Drive for Business
        3. Save your completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save your completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save your completed documents to Box
      3. Webform agreement archival
        1. Save completed web form documents to SharePoint Library
        2. Save completed web form documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save completed   documents to Google Drive
        4. Save completed web form documents to Box
      4. Agreement data extraction
        1. Extract form field data from your signed document and update Excel sheet
      5. Agreement notifications
        1. Send custom email notifications with your agreement contents and signed agreement
        2. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in a Teams Channel
        3. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Slack
        4. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Webex
      6. Agreement generation
        1. Generate document from Power App form and Word template, send for signature
        2. Generate agreement from Word template in OneDrive, and get signature
        3. Generate agreement for selected Excel row, send for review and signature
  5. Custom Send workflows
    1. Custom Send Workflow Overview
    2. Creating a new Send Workflow
    3. Edit a Send Workflow
    4. Activate or Deactivate a Send Workflow
    5. Send an agreement with a Send Workflow
  6. Share users and agreements
    1. Share a user
    2. Share agreements

Integrate with other products

  1.  Acrobat Sign integrations overview 
  2. Acrobat Sign for Salesforce
  3. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft
    1. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft 365
    2. Acrobat Sign for Outlook
    3. Acrobat Sign for Word/PowerPoint
    4. Acrobat Sign for Teams
    5. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft PowerApps and Power Automate
    6. Acrobat Sign Connector for Microsoft Search
    7. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft Dynamics 
    8. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft SharePoint 
  4. Other Integrations
    1. Acrobat Sign for ServiceNow
    2. Acrobat Sign for HR ServiceNow
    3. Acrobat Sign for SAP SuccessFactors
    4. Acrobat Sign for Workday
    5. Acrobat Sign for NetSuite
    6. Acrobat Sign for VeevaVault
    7. Acrobat Sign for Coupa BSM Suite
  5. Partner managed integrations
  6. How to obtain an integration key

Acrobat Sign Developer

  1. REST APIs 
    1. Methods documentation
    2. SDK/Developer Guide
    3. API FAQ    
  2. Webhooks 
    1. Webhook overview
    2. Configure a new webhook
    3. View or edit a webhook
    4. Deactivate or reactivate a webhook
    5. Delete a webhook
    6. Two-way SSL certificates
    7. Webhooks in the API

Support and Troubleshooting

  1. Customer Support Resources 
  2. Enterprise Customer Success Resources 

Ensure that digital identity authentication matches the recipient name and email the sender intends.

Overview

Digital Identities provide a solid method to verify who applies a signature based on their ability to authenticate to a trusted identity provider. However, the digital identity process occurs in a secure session between the signer and the identity provider (outside the Acrobat Sign environment). This means that the digital identity alone does not guarantee that the recipient is the exact intended email for which the sender configured the agreement.

The Identity Check policy allows for Digital Identities to match the name and email address configured by the sender to the name and email values associated with the Digital identity provider's records. this directly ties who the sender configured the agreement for to the authentication of the user. Additionally, the identity check can allow for alternate emails, as listed in the Identity Provider's records, and alternate or partial name values to accommodate how names might be communicated.

The Identity Check policy can be configured to be:

  • Disabled - The sender cannot enable the Identity Check.
  • Required - The Identity Check is automatically enabled for all recipients that have a Digital Identity authentication method. The sender can still enable other elements of the identity check.
  • Allowed - The sender must configure the individual recipients to have a digital ID authentication method, and then enable the individual check policies and their respective elements.

Availability:

The Identity Check policy is available for enterprise license plans.

Configuration scope:

The feature can be enabled at the account and group levels.

How it's used

Senders

When the Identity Check policy is Required or Allowed, the sender must configure the recipient to use a Digital Identity Provider (IdP) as their authentication method and then configure which elements of the identity check they want to enforce. These values are checked against the IdP's record for the recipient, and authentication is based on passing acceptable values to the IdP.

When Recipient Name checking is enabled, the sender must provide one or more name values that will be accepted by the IdP.

The sender can configure only one IdP for the authentication process.
If the recipient does not have their identity in place with the selected IdP, they must either create a new identity or the sender must change their authentication method.

The Compose page with the authenticaiton methods expanded and the digital identity method highlighted.

Recipients

Recipient authentication starts with a challenge page that is slightly modified based on how the Indetity Check Policy is configured.
In all cases, an identity verification page is presented with instructions on what the recipient must do and a Verify Identity button that opens the session to the IdP.

Note:

The email address of the sender is provided on the challenge page in the event that the recipient has an issue completing the authentication process.

When identity checking is disabled, the recipient is only asked to authenticate to the configured IdP by selecting the Verify Identity button.
As long as they can successfully authenticate to the IdP, the Acrobat Sign authentication process will pass, and the recipient gains access to the agreement.

The challenge page for Digital Identity authentication when Identity Checking is disabled
Note that the IdP information will vary depending on the IdP configured.

When identity checking is required, and alternate emails are not allowed, the verification challenge page explicitly identifies which email address must be used when authenticating to the IdP.
Any other email address will fail the process.

The challenge page for Digital Identity authentication when Identity Checking is required but alternate emails are not allowed
Note that the IdP information will vary depending on the IdP configured.

When authenticating is required and alternate emails are allowed, the challenge page explicitly calls out that alternative emails are permitted and provides the email address that the sender configured so the recipient can understand what the process requires.
Any email address understood by the IdP to be associated with the email address provided by the sender will pass the Acrobat Sign authentication test and allow access to the agreement.

The challenge page for Digital Identity authentication when Identity Checking is required and alternate emails are allowed
Note that the IdP information will vary depending on the IdP configured.

When name validation is enabled for the recipient, the list of acceptable name values is provided. Only the provided name values will be acceptable.

An option exists to allow for partial name matching, which employs logic to understand what partial names are likely (Dave instead of David, for example). The partial name-matching logic also accounts for non-English characters (e.g. diacritics) that are situationally replaced with English characters. For example, the acute accent (á), grave accent (à), and umlaut (ä) could be included in scope if the English "a" character is used.

The ID check page when the Name check policy is enabled and multiple names have been provided.

When a recipient fails to authenticate to the IdP, the challenge page refreshes and displays red warning text to draw attention to the issue.
The number of attempts remaining is clearly stated along with a warning that the agreement will be canceled if the recipient fails more than the maximum number of attempts.

The challenge page for Digital Identity authentication when Identity Checking has failed
Note that the IdP information will vary depending on the IdP configured.

Automatic cancellation when attempts exceed the maximum

When a recipient fails to authenticate to the IdP more than is allowed, the agreement is automatically canceled.
A red banner is displayed informing the recipient of the cancellation and instructing the recipient to contact the sender. The sender's email address is provided.

The error message when a recipient cancels the agreement due to failure to authenticate

Configuration

The controls for this feature can be assessed by navigating to Digital Identity > Identity Check Policy

The Digital Identity tab highlighting the Identity Check policy controls.

The configurable options are:

  • Disabled - When disabled, the recipient passes the Acrobat Sign authentication by successfully authenticating to the identity provider (without requiring an association to the recipeint's name as configured by the sender). If a digital identity authentication method is selected, the sender does not have the option to add the identity check.
The senders view of the recipient settings when name checking is disabled

  • Required - Requiring a name check requires the sender to enter one or more name values that must match the name value of the identity provider's records.
    • When the Required option is selected and the recipient has a digital identity set as their authentication method, the recipient settings automatically enable the setting to apply name matching, and the sender has no option to unselect it.
    • The sender must supply at least one name value. Multiple values can be provided in a comma-separated format.
The senders view of the recipient settings when name checking is required

  • Allowed - When the Allowed option is selected, it is incumbent on the sender to enable the identity check (after selecting the digital identity provider as the authentication method) and select the elements of the check to be applied for each recipient that should have the check applied.
    • The sender must supply at least one name value. Multiple values can be provided in comma-separated format.
The senders view of the recipient settings when name checking is allowed

  • Allow partial Name matching - When enabled, an additional setting is available to the sender:
    • Allow partial name matching - When enabled, partial name matching allows commonly used name derivatives to be used instead of the literal name string (allowing Dave instead of David for example).
      • Additionally, the use of diacritics can be understood as a common English analog. For example, the acute accent (á), grave accent (à), and umlaut (ä) could be included in scope if the English "a" character is used. 
The senders view of the recipient settings when partial name matching is allowed

Audit Report and Activity logs

All successful authentications provide the same information to the Audit Report, including:

  • The name and email address of the recipient
  • The identity provider
  • A reference ID
  • A verification date

The Activity log records a more concise record, identifying only that the identity verification passed.

The audit report and activity log for a successful identity event.

Note:

It is not noted if an alternate email address is used for the verification, only the successful attempt is recorded.

Identity failure happens when a recipient fails to successfully authenticate with the identity provider more than three times.
When this happens, the Audit Report clearly indicates:

  • Which recipient failed the authentication process
  • The IdP used in the authentication attempt
  • The message that the document was canceled due to a failure to authenticate within the maximum number of tries

The Activity log contains a more concise description identifying that the recipient failed to verify their identity beyond the maximum number of attempts.

The audit report and activity log for a failed identity event.

Best practices

If your business practice requires that the signing party be the same as the party the agreement is sent to, and you are using digital identities for authentication, it's recommended to set the Recipient Email address matching to Required.

Unless you have a strong business reason to restrict the recipient to using an email explicitly tied to the primary verified email address at the identity provider, allowing alternate email values is recommended.

Recipient Name matching will depend on how critical an exact name value is to your internal process. In general, names have considerably more variability, so if names are to be matched, it's generally recommended to allow partial name matching.

 Adobe

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