Advanced Electronic Signatures and  eIDAS  -- Analysis of the Concept 
             
              Pzemyslaw Blaskiewicz and Miroslaw Kutylowski
              Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
              
We discuss the model  of electronic signatures as described  by the European eIDAS Regulation 
from the perspective of common understanding of electronic signatures in the cryptographic community. 
We show that these two perspectives do not present the same picture. 
The discrepancies between them may become opportunities as well as barriers
for rapid deployment of electronic signatures and seals in business and administration.

We focus particularly on validation of advanced electronic signatures and its interplay 
with the data protection requirements of GDPR.  We show that by tweaking the existing technical standards
one can reduce the number of problems and achieve compliance with both GDPR and eIDAS. 

Among others, we wish to bring attention to the evolving regulatory framework that 
without any doubt will have a substantial impact on the ecosystem of electronic signatures. 

Keywords: eIDAS, advanced electronic signature,   electronic seal, SSCD, sole control, validation, GDPR, compliance


to appear in Computer Standards & Interfaces journal