California Government Code § 8231.18

Government Code
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(a) As used in this section, the following terms have the following meanings: (1) “Audio-video communication” means being able to see, hear, and communicate with another individual in real time using electronic means. (2) “Audio-video recording” means a recording of the audio-video communication of a remote online notarial act. (3) “Business” means an individual, proprietorship, firm, partnership, joint venture, syndicate, business trust, company, corporation, limited liability company, association, committee, and any other organization or group of individuals acting in concert that provides a software platform for use by a notarial officer not in the physical presence of the principal to communicate with the principal, enable the performance of a remote online notarial act, and record the performance of the remote online notarial act. (4) “Electronic journal” means a sequential record of remote online notarial acts performed by a notarial officer facilitated by a business. (5) “Encrypt” or “encrypted” means rendered unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to an unauthorized person through a security technology or methodology generally accepted in the field of information security. (6) “Notarial act” means an act, whether performed with respect to a tangible or electronic record, that a notarial officer may perform under the laws of a state other than California, a foreign state, or under federal law. (7) “Notarial officer” means a notary public or other individual authorized to perform a notarial act. (8) “Notary public” means an individual commissioned to perform a notarial act. (9) “Open format” means information that is formatted in a manner that is platform independent, machine readable, and made available to the public without restrictions that would impede the reuse of that information. (10) “Principal” means an individual for whom a remote online notarial act is performed who has represented to the business that they are located in California. (11) “Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in both physical and electronic form. (12) “Remote online notarial act“ or “remote online notarization” means a notarial act performed for a principal by a notarial officer using audio-video communication through a business when the notarial officer is located in a state other than California. (13) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. (b) A business consents to the jurisdiction of the courts of this state for transactions related to a principal. (c) For transactions related to a principal, a business shall comply with all of the following: (1) (A) A business shall create an encrypted electronic journal entry for each remote online notarial act. The business shall enable access to the electronic journal by the notarial officer through secure multifactor means of authentication. The electronic journal shall be capable of providing both physical and electronic copies of any entry made therein. Each electronic journal entry shall contain, at a minimum, the following information: (i) The date, time, and type of each remote online notarial act. The time entered shall be in Coordinated Universal Time. (ii) The physical location of the principal as represented to the business by the principal, and the physical location of the notarial officer at the time of the remote online notarial act. (iii) The title, or a short description if no title exists, of each record that was the subject of the remote online notarial act. (iv) The electronic signature of each principal. (v) A statement as to the basis of the notarial officer’s method of identification of the principal. (vi) A statement that an audio-video recording of the remot

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