Sec. 01.02.08.04. Qualifications of Remote Online Notary Venders

A. To qualify as an authorized remote online notary vendor by the Secretary of State, the vendor shall meet the following criteria:

(1) The vendor shall be incorporated to do business in the United States of America;

(2) The vendor shall be a company based in the United States of America that has been lawfully operating in the United States of America for at least 3 years;

(3) All encryption and decryption services provided by the remote online notary vendor shall occur in the United States of America; and

(4) The vendor shall utilize commercially reasonable practices, procedures, and technology consistent with or better than the practices, procedures, and technology generally used by other vendors engaged in offering remote notarization services.

B. Technology used by a remote online notary vendor shall allow Maryland notaries public to meet requirements of the notary law, including but not limited to the following:

(1) Allow the notary to securely identify the remotely located individual by personal knowledge or satisfactory evidence as described in State Government Article, §18-214(a)(1)(i)-(iii), Annotated Code of Maryland;

(2) Allow for the retention of audio-visual recordings created under State Government Article, §18-214(a)(3), Annotated Code of Maryland, for at least 10 years; and

(3) Ensure that the notary public has access to the audio-visual recordings of their notarial acts.