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I recall from years past when using Preview to add my signature, that it was possible to secure in such a way that the recipient could not highlight select, copy and paste the signature. I've either forgotten how to do this, or the ability to do so had been removed. Help please.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15
CuriousMonk wrote:
how do I protect my Preview added signature?
I recall from years past when using Preview to add my signature, that it was possible to secure in such a way that the recipient could not highlight select, copy and paste the signature. I've either forgotten how to do this, or the ability to do so had been removed. Help please.
How can this be an issue?
I believe you protect your signature by not sending it out willy-nilly in any and all emails. I would reserve my signature for mandiatoy documents that require your John Hancock for legal reasons only.
I do not remember this as any kind of feature...? If you can supply documentation that would be helpful.
Once you send an email— it seems you can copy & paste anything...? You have no control over that.
see: Create and use signatures
https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/fill-out-and-sign-pdf-forms-prvw35725/mac
On your Mac the saved signature are well protected within the macOS.
signature data is usually encrypted. In your Keychain you should be able to find a password entry named "Preview Signature Privacy" - this is the password used to encrypt the signature data.
Even the the plist in encoded
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.signatures.plist
Signatures that you associate with Preview are stored in an encrypted form, which is great for security but also means that Preview is the only program that can access them.
Even though an inserted signature is resizable and can be moved around in the given PDF document, you cannot copy it or a selection that contains it from Preview to another program.
The signatures in Preview are secured from any copy/paste into another application, but that will not stop anyone from performing a screen capture of your signature, removing the white background, and reusing it. That is why it is important to use your signatures with discretion on a limited basis and to those you trust. You may wish to doubly protect your signature by encrypting the PDF with that limited distribution in mind.
I appreciate your replies.
Absolutely and without question a screen grab can capture a signature. One limited countermeasure to that is to ensure that the signature straddles the signature line so that it is obstructed. A determined evil doer can certainly overcome that but at least it will take a bit of time and effort on their part to do so.
On further searching I found this thread "no security @ Preview 10.1 (944.6.16.1)"
As you will see it describes a method to secure the signature that begins with selecting the print function then "Save to PDF" then selecting security options, at which point you have the option to secure from copy/paste by adding a password.
Good so far.
But then I did as recommended and for confidence opened the newly created file with the signature image, highlighted the signature, copied it and pasted it intact into a new document, all without having to enter the password.
Now it's possible that as creator of the document that I was not required to enter the password, but that's only a hypothesis. I will need to engage in an experiment with a third party to verify whether or not the hypothesis is valid. I welcome others to do so as well and hopefully post results here.
Thanks for your engagement so far.
how do I protect my Preview added signature?
