No blind one-click signing

What the signatory sees

Every petition has one page that carries both the petition and its signature form. On that page the visitor sees, in this order:

• the title of the petition,
• the name of the petition author and the country they gave,
• the cover image, if the author added one,
• the full petition text,
• the signature form, with the fields and the consent questions the author chose.

A Contact author button is on the same page, so a visitor who wants to ask something before signing can do it.

How signing works, step by step

1. The visitor opens the petition page, from your link, a share, a search result or a petition list.
2. They read the petition and fill in the signature form.
3. They answer the consent questions. Each one names what the information is used for, and the hand-over question names you: "I authorize [the author] to hand over the information I provide on this form to the decision makers."
4. They press Sign.
5. If the petition collects email addresses, we send a confirmation message to the address given. The signature is counted and shown only after the signatory opens the link in that message, or types the code from it.

There is no path through this that skips the petition. Even the invitation we send when an author corrects a typo in an email address only opens the petition page with the signature form; it never submits a signature by itself.

How this differs from some of the largest platforms

On some of the largest petition platforms, a recipient of a campaign email can add their signature to a petition with a single click, from a message that shows little more than a headline. The platform already holds their name and email address, so one click is enough.

We do not offer that. It produces signatures from people who never read the petition and often cannot say afterwards whose petition they signed. That is a weak signature, and a decision-maker who notices it will treat the whole list with suspicion.

Who this helps

It helps anyone who will have to defend the signature list. A residents' association handing 900 signatures to a city council will be asked whether those people knew what they were supporting. Because every signatory passed through the petition page and gave their consents there, the answer is yes, and the privacy policy of the petition records what they agreed to.

It also helps the signatory. People who read a petition before signing are the people who later open your updates, share the petition and come to events.

Good to know

We confirm email addresses, not identities. The confirmation message proves that the address exists and that the signatory can read its mail. If you want to be able to check a signature further, ask for a phone number on the form and call the signatory.

A signature given without an email address, on a petition whose author chose not to collect addresses, cannot be confirmed this way. The signatory still sees the petition and its author before signing.