What Is Identity Verification and How Does It Work?

Identity verification is a very important digital screening process many organizations use. Your business may need it for a variety of tasks, screenings, ID queries, and more. In this article, we are going to discuss identity verification, why it exists, how it works, and more. If your company is employing some form of ID verification or maybe start to use it soon, read on to find out everything you need to know.

What Is ID Verification?

Simply put, ID verification is the digital process used to verify that a person you are dealing with is who they say they are. It is used in conjunction with governments and recognized identity cards to make sure a person is not lying to you. There are many documents that can be viewed as providing the accurate identity of a person such as a driving license, passport, 

Using a bank of stored data alongside accessible databases online, the ID verification system will be able to check that the information a customer, client, or potential business partner has given you matches up with online data, therefore verifying that they are who they say they are. 

Why Might You Need It?

There are many reasons why you may need to check someone’s identity. Explain how money laundering is a surprisingly big problem when buying property or businesses these days. Checking someone’s identity can help to prove that their money is in fact theirs and that they have not used someone else’s identity to get or use fraudulent money as they will not be showing on an anti-money laundering list of any kind when checked. 

Often, hackers can steal identities from a collection of information on the internet. Forging identities has become more and more of a problem. However, a good ID verification system should be able to help you spot this and avoid working with a potentially stolen identity.

How Does It Work?

There are two main ways that digital identity verification works. Firstly, through photos and videos. Photos of a client’s government-issued identification are checked through a computer system. The automated system will be able to lift the data from the photo, checking it against government databases to fact-check it. Often, a video of the customer is also uploaded to the system, checking that it matches the facial features of the photos on the ID.

Secondly, you – or your system – can check a person’s identity on data alone. Manually entering data or filling in a form with address histories, names, dates, and more will again be checked against databases. Arguably, this is less accurate than using a photo ID, but detailed data can be used to increase security.

Both of these systems are digital and both can be automated. Many big ID verification systems develop software that means you can do everything remotely. Usually, it takes just a couple of minutes for a good verification system to check thousands of pieces of data and give you an accurate idea as to how valid this ID is.

Types of Businesses Affected

As we mentioned briefly earlier, all kinds of businesses need to check their identity at various times. One of the most basic examples is when interviewing or onboarding a new member of staff. When hiring, you want to make sure that you are hiring someone with the right to work in the country, who has citizenship, and basically is who they say they are! ID verification software can allow you to check these people instantly, before getting further into the hiring process.

On a larger scale, money lending companies need to be sure they are giving loans to people who can afford to pay them back. They want to check ID, credit report, and more very quickly, before lending any money out to the wrong people. In this type of business, ID verification and background checking are super important.

Even on a much smaller level, many bars and clubs employ ID checking. Usually, this is done for a different reason, simply to check a customer is old enough to drink! Other benefits mean that they can report who is in the venue to the police if needed. Also, it helps them keep track of any patrons who have been previously banned or removed from the venue.

ID Verification, then, is a very important part of multiple types of businesses for lots of different reasons. If your business is affected by any of the issues above, you should be employing an ID verification system. It could save you lots of trouble further down the line!