Certified email

Certified email is a kind of email whose sending is certified by a neutral third-party, analogous to certified mail. A certified email aims to guarantee the same legal validity as a certified mail. For each certified email, the government will guarantee the legal validity with a delivery receipt that will be given to the sender. The receiver will be able to verify the mail using a legally signed delivery receipt. Certified mail aims to reduce postal costs and difficulties.

The system is currently used in Hong Kong and in Italy. The Italian certified mail (Posta elettronica certificata) uses protocols described in the RFC 6109 (Request for Comments 6109), which was drafted in order to make the protocols public to the Internet community.