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.

Limiting the digital identity to the email address configured by the sender can be problematic. Recipients may have their signatures stored under a personal email address instead of a business address. Some use cases may allow for the application of a signature regardless of the alignment of the recipient's email and the digital identity used. Some may require an exact match of the email as configured by the sender. Some may allow for an email address that doesn't exactly match the email as configured but is included in a list of alternate email addresses held by the identity provider.

The Identity Check Policy allows for Digital Identities to be matched to the configured email address and, optionally, to allow for listed alternate addresses to be accepted during the authentication process.

Availability:

The Identity Check Policy is available for individual, team, and enterprise license plans.

Configuration scope:

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

How it's used

Senders

For senders, the only requirement is to select a Digital Identity Provider (IdP) for the authentication method.

The sender can configure only one IdP for the authentication process, and the recipient must use that IdP.
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 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

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 Identity Check Policy 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.

Configuration

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

The Digital Identity tab highlighting the Check Identity 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 email address as configured by the sender).
Required - Requiring an identity check provides the email address entered by the sender to the identity provider and requires that the primary verified email address match that email address.
- If alternate email addresses are not permitted, then only the primary email address passes the identity check.
Allow alternate email addresses matching - When enabled, the recipient passes the identity check if the email configured by the sender is either the primary email or an alternate email address in the identity provider's records.

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.

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Configure an Identity Check Policy for digital identities

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

Overview