That seems like a really long time, and in today’s digital world, we may see many changes to how data is stored electronically. Currently the SoC requires that the journal entry be housed by the notary for a full five years – which is quite a change from not requiring a journal entry at all for traditional notarizations!
This requirement adds potential risk to the transaction and depending on the number of electronic transactions you perform, it could potentially be quite costly. After all, an external hard drive is easily picked up, moved, lost, stolen or worst case scenario – it becomes corrupt. Then what do you do?
Home computers are frequently changed out or upgraded and – if attached to the internet – accessible by hackers.
Due to the very nature of the Notary Public’s commission, our journal entries are to stay with us – not an employer. YOU are responsible for your notarial acts, and could be called on to appear in court if there is any question about the transaction. We are required to maintain a back-up copy of the recording and the journal entry. You would never entertain the idea of leaving a paper journal with your employer if you changed jobs – so you certainly don’t want to leave your e-notary journal on their servers.
And considering the number of data breaches that are in the news these days, you may wonder if there IS a safe way to store this information.
Yes, there is. At Notaries-at-Large.com we have procured a strong on-line repository for your journal entries. This repository is made available to you after signing up, and can maintain up to 2.5gb of data for no additional fee for the first year. NO ONE other than you can access the space allocated to you, and you are free at any time to move it. Upon notification that the data has been moved, we will authorize a complete wipe of the repository and close the account.