How to Streamline Customer Onboarding with Photo ID Verification

Imagine a long queue in front of the immigration desk at the airport. Your passport and other identity documents are in your hand and you are in a hurry to board your flight. When you reach the desk, the immigration officer finds a Mismatch in your passport identity picture, other ID documents, and yourself. Astounded you, called your family and informed them, missed your flight in the bustle, and faced issues. Finally, it was found out that your Photo ID was outdated in the passport and other documents as you took them nearly 9 years ago. Now you grow a beard, and have wrinkles and other visible facial feature changes. Also, the passport’s main page containing your identity information was worn out. These issues are common and need to be addressed where an impeccable and swift transition to newer ways of verifying user identities is becoming the need of the time.

Today we will provide a comprehensive knowledge builder on customer onboarding through photo ID verification, its future implications, and trends.

Key Takeaways

• Photo ID Verification is a means of verifying user identity through intelligent face matching from selfies and identity document photograph
• With multiple use cases, Photo ID Verification can verify a person’s claim on a certain identity online.
• NIST provides insightful guidelines and benchmarks for facial recognition solutions to enhance their Photo ID verification capabilities.
• Apart from the 2 aspects of Liveness Detection photo ID verification distinctively checks the fakeness of ID documents, and the ownership of 

Overview of Photo ID Verification

The photo ID Verification process is implemented to verify the user’s identity by matching the facial photograph or actual real face with the photo of a government-issued Identity document containing a photograph. This identity document can be a driver’s license, a National Identity card, or a passport.

Elements of Photo ID Verification include:

• A Government-Issued Identity document having a person’s photo
• A Facial photograph or the real person
• A Facial recognition solution 

Photo ID Verification is required in multiple scenarios such as:

1. Age Verification

Some businesses such as bars, clubs, and casinos require age verification. These businesses use on-premises age verification by obligating the entrants of the establishment to provide a photo ID document and match it with the ID document holder’s face. Online Age verification also requires users to upload their valid ID document and use a selfie camera for Photo ID matching. Recently the US state of Tennessee made progress in implementing photo ID checks for verifying the age of visitors of explicit content platforms. Read the news report here

2. Online Banking

Banks require photo ID Verification for large amounts of transactions carried out during online banking. While opening bank accounts, making high-value purchases online, or using other online banking services may require proof of identity through a Photo Identity document.

3. Access and Control

Many businesses, organizations, and institutions use photo ID verification to restrict access to their premises. For this purpose, they sometimes issue their photo ID Document to the users and only allow them access if they produce that specific ID document, for example an organization card at the entrance.

4. KYC Identity Verification

KYC (Know Your Customer) also utilizes photo ID Documents as proof of identity for customer onboarding. Mostly, done in financial institutions and other fintech companies, businesses require to know their customers and ensure that no bad actor is trying to enter the system. For this purpose, the KYC process utilizes photo ID verification via selfie cameras in which the bank or an FI asks the customer to hold the ID document alongside his face for face matching.

Photo ID Verification Process Explained

NIST’s Identity Verifying Evidence- An Insightful Discussion

Apart from the discussion above the Photo ID Verification process is required to follow a certain standard in verifying identities through photos. For this purpose, the National Institute of Standards & Technology has published a document categorizing different identity verification methods based on their efficiency and effectiveness. NIST has benchmarked the identity verification process in its report as follows:

• NIST has categorized identity verification evidence under strength levels as Unacceptable, Weak, Fair, Strong, and Superior
• An applicant whose identity is being verified needs to prove the ownership of his identity by physical comparison including photo ID match using appropriate technologies.
• The second method of proving identity ownership is using biometric comparison with the strongest identity evidence means provided that shall also adhere to the requirements mentioned in [SP 800-63B, Section 5.2.3.]
• Solutions using Photo ID Verification lie in the category of ‘Strong’ and can be enhanced to ‘Superior’ if they implement biometric identity proofing.

From the above NIST research brief, it is evident that facial recognition software must incorporate both photo ID matching and facial biometrics to enhance their IDV solutions to ensure robust customer onboarding and digital security to users.

Photo ID Matching vs Liveness Detection – A Perspective

Liveness Detection has two main aspects namely; Active Liveness & Passive Liveness. These 

In facial recognition, Active and Passive liveness checks ensure that a real and living person is sitting in front of the camera whereas Photo ID verification can only confirm the actual ownership of the photo ID document or the element of fakeness of the photo ID document. Moreover, photo ID verification works on the 1:1 identification model whereas Liveness Detection is an entirely different parameter to confirm a user’s liveness. However, when the 2 technologies combine under one solution like Facia, the facial recognition system becomes stronger against threat vectors of identity spoofing including deepfake attacks of ID document forgery or counterfeit.

How Facia Helps in Streamlining Customer Onboarding with Photo ID Matching?

Facia is a cutting-edge AI-driven facial recognition solution that is backed by unique 3D face mapping technology that analyses the 3-Dimensional facial features from a user’s selfie and photo ID. The match is determined through a confidence score that facia gives to both pictures. Facia also ensures a high level of compliance with regulations and standards in the facial biometric identity verification industry. It has achieved certifications from NIST, iBeta, KJM & SOC. Facia maintains the reputation of being the world’s fastest Facial IDV solution which is your swift and accurate security measure for seamless customer onboarding. KYC providers can easily integrate Facia with their existing systems and enhance their client satisfaction levels.