
Certified email benefits and uses explained.
Certified email ensures that your message is delivered to the recipient's mailbox, not their spam folder. This is especially useful for businesses that need to send important documents, contracts, or invoices.
A certified email is a type of email that is verified by a third-party service, which adds an extra layer of security and reliability to the email. This means that the sender and recipient can be sure that the email has not been tampered with or intercepted.
Certified email is also useful for tracking delivery and read receipts, which can be especially helpful for businesses that need to send emails to multiple recipients or follow up on responses.
What is Certified Email
Certified email is a secure and reliable way to send and receive emails. It's designed to protect sensitive information and ensure that emails are delivered to the right person.
This type of email is also known as proof of delivery email, which means that once the email is delivered, it's stored on a server for a certain period of time, typically 5-10 years.
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Certified email is often used for official communications, such as sending invoices, contracts, or other important documents. It provides a paper trail and helps prevent disputes over email delivery.
The email is stored on a server, which is like a digital archive, and can be retrieved at any time. This makes it easy to prove that an email was sent and received.
Certified email is also encrypted, which means that only the sender and receiver can access the email content. This adds an extra layer of security to the email.
Benefits and Advantages
Certified email offers numerous benefits and advantages that make it an essential tool for any type of electronic communication.
Increased security and privacy are just a few of the advantages of using certified email. It uses encryption and digital signature to protect your electronic communications against unauthorized access and alteration.
Certified emails are instantly legally valid and internationally recognized, facilitating the acceptance and recognition of your communications in different jurisdictions.
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Sending a certified email is a simple process that integrates easily with your existing email tools and platforms, ensuring a smooth and seamless user experience.
With certified email, you can enjoy detailed record and absolute guarantee of delivery, providing complete traceability of your communications.
Here are the main advantages of certified email:
- Increased security and privacy
- Instant legal validity and international recognition
- Detailed record and absolute guarantee of delivery
- Ease of use and compatibility
- Cost and time reduction
- Professionalism and agility
Certified email has become an indispensable tool in today's digital environment, offering security, legal validity, and trust in electronic communications.
Technical Details
Certified email technologies often call for the parties involved to trust a trusted third party (TTP), also known as the "postman", which has the capacity to reveal the identity of the sender to the recipient once the protocol is initiated.
There are two-party scenarios with only one sender and one receiver, as well as a trusted third party serving as a mediator.
In some applications, the role of a TTP can be trusted to an electronic registered delivery service capable of securing timestamped evidence of the contents and delivery of the electronic message, without the recipient's intervention.
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Uses and Applications
Certified emails are used for formal, legal, and judicial notifications, such as dismissals, claims, and summons, to guarantee their delivery and legal validity.
These types of notifications can be sent as certified emails to ensure receipt and acceptance by all parties involved.
In the corporate environment, certified emails are useful for internal and external communications that require a high degree of security and confidentiality.
Certified emails are also used for contractual communications and commercial agreements, such as signing contracts, agreements, modifications, cancellations, and credit concessions.
They can be used to give legal authorizations to third parties, including all types of electronic signatures, or to communicate registration in delinquent files.
Here are some examples of certified email uses:
- Formal, legal, and judicial notifications
- Contractual communications and commercial agreements
- Financial transactions
- Communications with the administration
- Internal and External Corporate Communications
Depending on the use case of the certified e-mail, different traceability options must be chosen to generate proof, such as reception, opening, viewing of documents, opening of documents, and downloading of documents.
How to Send and Manage
To send certified email, you need to attach a digital certificate to the email. This certificate is a unique identifier that verifies the authenticity of the email and ensures it is delivered to the recipient's inbox.
The recipient can view the digital certificate by clicking on the "Verify" button, which will display the certificate's details, including the sender's name and email address.
Once the email is sent, the sender and recipient can both track its status, including whether it has been read or not.
For another approach, see: Email Sender Accreditation
What is Registration and How It Works

Having a registration process in place helps prevent spam and ensures that only authorized individuals can access and manage content.
Registration typically involves providing personal and contact information, such as an email address or username.
A strong password is also required to secure the account and protect against unauthorized access.
Registration is often followed by a verification process, where a link or code is sent to the provided email address to confirm the account.
This verification step helps prevent fake or automated accounts from being created.
Once registered and verified, users can log in to their account to access and manage their content.
Registration is a crucial step in sending and managing content, as it establishes a secure and identifiable account.
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How To Send
To send a certified email, you need to choose a trusted certification service provider and access its online platform by logging in with your account.
First, you'll need to create or import a valid digital certificate that will be used to digitally sign your emails or use a valid digital signature method provided by your trust service provider.
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Compose the email as you normally would, including any necessary documents or attachments, and make a digital signature request for documents if necessary.
Before sending the email, you can choose between sequential, bulk or parallel sending in case you have more than one recipient.
To send the registered email, digitally sign it and then send it through your provider's email service.
The steps to send a certified email are as follows:
- Access the platform of the certified email service provider
- Import a digital certificate to send by email or make use of the RegTech platform method
- Compose the email or attach a document with the information to be sent
- Choose the sending method
- Send the registered email
- Add the recipient's information
- Store certified email delivery receipt and read receipt
After sending the email, make sure to store the delivery receipt and read receipt of the registered email as proof of sending and receiving.
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Management Limits
Not all e-mail clients display PECs, which can make it difficult to browse them.
Most e-mail management programs collect and archive PECs, but you may need to perform subsequent elaborations to find the content in clear text and attachments in a searchable mode.
The software for PECs is installed and used on PCs that users normally use, which can put the alleged confidentiality guaranteed by the PEC encryption at risk due to spyware and malware.

Some common difficulties when consulting PECs include:
- Not all e-mail clients display PECs
- Loss of the relationship between attachments and PEC
- Size limits
- Substitutive conservation according to law
Size limits on mailboxes can impose severe restrictions on the free circulation of correspondence, and there's no clear guidance on what happens if the series of PEC messages exceeds the capacity of the mailbox purchased by the sender or recipient.
Free Tools
Free Tools can be a great starting point for sending and managing certified emails.
If you're on a tight budget, there are free certified email tools available that can get the job done.
Tecalis Sign offers a free trial period that includes free certified email, making it an excellent option for individual users or small businesses.
Free certified email tools often come with limitations compared to paid versions, but they can still provide the legal backing necessary for certified email.
For small businesses or individual users, a freemium version like Tecalis Sign's can be a good starting point, with a number of free deliveries available.
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Legal and Regulatory
Certified email has full legal validity, recognized in the judicial sphere, as long as it's endorsed by a duly accredited certification service provider.
Current European Union legislation, the eIDAS regulation, establishes the framework for electronic interactions between businesses, ensuring they're safer, faster, and more efficient across all Member States.
According to Article 43 of the Regulation, data sent and received using an electronic registered delivery service, such as certified email, shall not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings solely on the grounds that it's in an electronic form or that it doesn't meet the requirements of the qualified electronic registered delivery service.
The legal validity of certified email is a crucial aspect, distinguishing it from conventional emails for practical purposes. In many countries, laws and regulations on electronic communications and digital signatures recognize the legal validity of certified emails with digital signature.
Some countries, like Spain, have laws that establish the legal validity of certified email, such as Law 59/2003, which states that an email data message sealed with certified electronic means shall have the same value and effectiveness as a handwritten signature in relation to the data contained therein.
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Here are some key aspects of the legal validity of certified email:
- Legal validity is recognized in the judicial sphere, as long as it's endorsed by a duly accredited certification service provider.
- Article 43 of the eIDAS Regulation ensures that data sent and received using an electronic registered delivery service, such as certified email, has the same legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings.
- Countries like Spain have laws that establish the legal validity of certified email, such as Law 59/2003.
Communication Rules
Certified e-mail follows strict rules, established by the Decree of the President of the Republic n. 68/2005. This decree sets the foundation for the management of certified e-mail.
The subsequent rules envisaged by the decree further outline the guidelines for certified e-mail. These rules are crucial for ensuring the secure and reliable transmission of electronic communications.
Certified e-mail is managed by AGID accredited providers. This ensures that all certified e-mail services meet the required standards and regulations.
Legal Validity
In the digital age, certified emails have gained significant traction due to their legal validity. Certified emails are considered an electronic registered delivery service, as per the eIDAS (electronic IDentification, Authentication, and trust Services) regulation.
This means that a certified email is fully valid as a means of reliably certifying any communication made in this way. In fact, Article 43 of the Regulation states that data sent and received using an electronic registered delivery service shall not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings.
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The legal validity of certified emails is crucial, as it distinguishes them from conventional emails for practical purposes. In many countries, laws and regulations on electronic communications and digital signature recognize the legal validity of certified emails with digital signature.
For a certified email to be legally valid, digital certificates and encryption technologies from recognized certification authorities (QTSP) must be used, and detailed records must be kept of the delivery and receipt of the message (audit trail). This is essential to establish the authenticity and integrity of the email.
Here are some key points to note about the legal validity of certified emails:
- Certified emails are considered an electronic registered delivery service.
- They have the same legal validity as a physically signed document or traditional certified mail.
- They can be used as evidence in legal proceedings, provided the requirements established by law are met.
- Detailed records of delivery and receipt must be kept to establish authenticity and integrity.
In summary, certified emails have established themselves as a reliable and secure means of communication, with the added benefit of legal validity. This makes them an indispensable tool in today's digital environment.
Country-Specific Information
In Italy, certified email is a mandatory requirement for businesses and public administration since July 1, 2013, with paper documents no longer accepted.

The Italian government agency AgID oversees and regulates the use of certified email in Italy.
Anyone can register a certified email address through an authorized provider or reseller in Italy.
The Italian government is migrating from PEC to a new protocol called Registered Electronic Mail, starting from 2022.
The new protocol is EIDAS-compliant and will be fully implemented by 2024.
Here's a comparison of some certified email providers in Italy:
Italy's AgID agency determines the authorized certified email providers, legal framework, and rules for use.
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