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International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business

TrustBus 2006: Trust and Privacy in Digital Business pp 71–80Cite as

On Diffusion and Confusion – Why Electronic Signatures Have Failed

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 4083))

Abstract

Even seven years after the directive was enacted the market share of EC-directive conforming signature cards is disappointingly low, failing to meet any involved party’s expectations. Also the lack of customers discourages companies from investing in signature products and applications. As a result almost no commercial usage for qualified electronic signatures exists. Consequently no customers seek to obtain signature products. With this contribution we examine, if economic principles are responsible for the missing adoption of qualified electronic signatures in Europe. We show that their attributes related to the rate of adoption are far from optimal. We then take a look at efforts being undertaken to increase the adoption of qualified electronic signatures. We conclude the contribution with some recommendations on how to structure a future signature market in order to speed up the diffusion process.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Mobile Commerce and Multilateral Security, Johann Wolfgang Goethe- University Frankfurt, Gräfstr. 78, 60054, Frankfurt, Germany

    Heiko Roßnagel

Authors
  1. Heiko Roßnagel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Karlstad University, Universitetsgatan 2, 651 88, Karlstad, Sweden

    Simone Fischer-Hübner

  2. School of Computing, Communications and Electronics, Network Research Group, University of Plymouth, PL4 8AA, Plymouth, UK

    Stevel Furnell

  3. Laboratory of Information and Communication Systems Security Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, GR-83200, Samos, Karlovassi, Greece

    Costas Lambrinoudakis

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Roßnagel, H. (2006). On Diffusion and Confusion – Why Electronic Signatures Have Failed. In: Fischer-Hübner, S., Furnell, S., Lambrinoudakis, C. (eds) Trust and Privacy in Digital Business. TrustBus 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4083. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11824633_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11824633_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-37750-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-37752-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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