With the current COVID-19 global pandemic crisis and the progress of digital adoption initiatives around the globe, businesses are feeling the brunt of the force. This is in line with a barrage of new practices moving forward. In line with the rise of facets of the new norm, low-touch and physical distancing practices, online ID verification technology is being used more frequently.
In fact, capabilities for digital verification (including those related to the recognition of faces) are being relied on as companies, retailers, service providers, and brands seek to bring convenience, safety and speed to their online processes and transactions.
With that being said, there may be some people who still wonder about the significance of capturing their selfies and identity cards when signing up to a digital platform. Is it safe to share selfies online?
There are two main methods of facial ID capturing
For the most part, facial verification standards often require users to submit a selfie of themselves as part and parcel of the ID verification process. There are two frequently used methods for this. The first method is to upload a photo of a selfie, and the second method is to upload a photo of yourself holding your identity document.
For manual verification process through eyeballing, the second method is the recommended implementation option because it is much more unlikely that hackers can find a victim's portrait photo in this pose readily available from social media profiles or other internet sources. On the other hand, the first method (capturing a selfie from a live camera) is a good option too when the facial verification process is automated with technology. Often, the facial sighting automation would require liveness detection capability to be built as part of the automation, either through the approach of:
i. active liveness detection (require subject to explicitly follow through some prompts such as face feature movements), or
ii. passive (without requiring any explicit movement).