What is a digital certificate?

Nowadays and thanks to new technologies, any citizen can contact the different Public Administrations and their organizations and even carry out many procedures with them, without having to physically go to their centers.

But in these cases we find two sides of the same reality . Since on the one hand, there are many users for whom this new way of relating to public organizations creates distrust (most of the time due to lack of knowledge).

Questions like how do you know it’s me? o What if anyone who has my data can impersonate me? They are very frequent and prefer to continue doing their procedures the old way, thus ensuring that no one can usurp their identity. And on the other hand, users who, due to their age or because they are more familiar with new technologies , venture to carry out this type of procedure and encounter an obstacle that does not allow them to move forward: the digital certificate.

What is the digital certificate?

The digital certificate is the digital document that has the data that identifies us and that has been authenticated by an official body. In short, it is the mechanism that, thanks to the digital signature or also the so-called electronic signature, allows the Public Administration and its organizations to know the identity of the person, thus preventing other users from impersonating someone they are not in reality. and thus facilitate their procedures

This electronic signature is the equivalent in the digital world, which is stamped by hand and has the same legal value as the former. In order to use this, you must request to obtain it. As? In a very simple way: through different organizations that facilitate it. The most common is usually the Mint and Stamp Factory, we just have to access this page and follow the steps indicated therein. These steps will vary depending on whether you are a natural person or representative, we just have to follow their instructions

Depending on the organization through which we request it, they may ask us for the electronic DNI , so those people who do not yet have it and want to process the digital certificate through this means, only have to request it when they are going to renew their national identity document. .

As you can see, obtaining the digital certificate brings several advantages to citizens when interacting with any of the Public Administrations and their organizations, since on the one hand, the identity of a person is assured without the possibility of impersonation of the same and on the other hand, it saves us time when processing many queries and procedures without leaving our own home.