Are you asked to take a selfie while signing up for the new bank?
This is referred to by the name identity verification. From opening a bank account to applying for the renewal of a driver’s license it’s becoming a more frequent method of authenticating a person as they sign up to any new service.
But the fact is that, having 1.4 million instances of identity theft being reported this year, the identity verification process is an essential element in stopping the use of fake addresses and names, as well as keeping personal information safe online.
What is it and how is it working?
Identity verification is an identification procedure that confirms that a person is who they claim to be. are. There are many options to be required to prove your identity, ranging from scanning your passport or taking quick photos. But, it will depend on the particular service you’re signing up to.
As an example when you create an account for the first time on Airbnb You may be required to provide a picture of your identification. It could be the driver’s license, passport or identification card. After scanning, the service analyzes the alphanumeric data as well as other specific information contained in the document in order to determine if it is in line with the information on the account that was created.
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Other services such as Monzo may require you to take an image or an incredibly short video to verify your identity. The process involves analyzing your facial geometry and then comparing the image to the ID you’ve submitted to prove that it’s yours.
How can I tell that my data is secure?
Although your personal data is mostly used to confirm the authenticity of your person, this information may still be employed to serve different reasons for example, such as creating and managing services and products and to spot fraud.
However, the majority of companies that store your personal data have a set of guidelines that are in place to ensure your information is secure. For instance, Lloyds Bank has their own privacy policy that safeguards your personal information from being disclosed in the event of a need to share it such as when it’s necessary for public security.
The Monzo service Monzo has verified that these videos were only used to verify the authenticity of new accounts. They are only accessible to an extremely small group of employees.
Alongside having A stringent security policy in place, some services such as Airbnb also secure your data with an encryption software called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Your data is transformed into a string of complicated numbers, which means that even if the data you share is secure with others, it is not accessible by hackers or anyone else.
