What is the difference between an electronic contract and an electronic signature or signature?

Article 10 of China's Contract Law stipulates that the forms of a contract include written form, oral form and other forms. At the same time, article 1 1 stipulates that data messages (including telegrams, telexes, faxes, electronic data interchange and e-mails) are written forms and can be used as tangible carriers of contract contents. As a new form of written contract, electronic contract has its particularity compared with the traditional form of written contract, which is embodied in the way in which the parties to the electronic contract reach an agreement.

1. Reach out actively: Reaching out actively is the first way. After consultation and negotiation, the parties to an electronic contract reach an agreement on the expression of will. It is different from the traditional contract in that the tangible carrier of the contract content is data message, which includes the negotiation between the parties to an electronic contract. The negotiation process may be reached through the exchange of data messages or the parties reach an agreement face to face, but the tangible form of the contract is electronic data.

2. Passive achievement: The second way of achievement is automatic achievement, which can also be called passive achievement. Article 20 of China's "Electronic Commerce Law (Draft)" stipulates that "the behavior of the parties to an electronic contract to conclude or perform a contract by using the automatic transaction information system has legal effect on the parties who use the system." Automatic transaction information system, also known as "electronic agent". "Electronic agent" refers to a software program that can automatically complete a specific task under a given system environment. The United States has defined "electronic agents" in the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act and the Uniform Electronic Computer Information Transactions Act, which refer to these computer programs, electronics or other automated means, and their independent applications can completely or to some extent complete some behavior or respond to electronic records or electronic operations without human operation or intervention. When signing an electronic contract with an "electronic agent", the "electronic agent" needs to know the identity information of the parties to the electronic contract and can authenticate the identity of the parties; Ensure that the parties to an electronic contract choose the function of expressing intention to conclude a contract according to their own wishes, and the parties can fully review, modify and determine the contents of the offer and acceptance.

Electronic signature:

Electronic signature refers to the data contained in the data message in electronic form and accompanied by data used to identify the identity of the signer and show that the signer approves its content. Data message refers to information generated, sent, received or stored by electronic, optical, magnetic or similar means. Simply put, electronic signature is to sign electronic documents in information processing in electronic form through cryptographic technology. It includes electronic signature, seal, biometric authentication, password or password code, personal identification code, etc. , which can provide identification and authentication, and at the same time represent the identity of the electronic signer, and has legal effect.

Electronic signature:

Electronic signature is a security measure to identify the signer of electronic documents and ensure the integrity of documents (anti-tampering). At present, the key technologies of electronic signature can be divided into: electronic signature technology based on digital watermarking algorithm and electronic signature technology based on digital signature algorithm.

There are both connections and differences between them.