Why Were You Asked to Capture a Selfie Photo When Doing Online ID Verification?

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?

Photo source: pexels

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).

Banks Should Turn to Using AI in eKYC in the Digital Arms Race

This article first appeared in Fintech News Malaysia, authored by Vincent Fong. 

There’s an old joke on how on the internet nobody knows that you’re a dog, which speaks to how the internet has become synonymous with anonymity. While anonymity is fine in many instances, in an increasingly digital world it has become crucial that you are who you say you are.

Nowhere is this more critical than in the financial services space, where banks are required to ensure that your funds are lawfully gained and are not channeled to some nefarious activity. For the longest time banks in Malaysia required you to show up in the branch physically to conduct a face to face KYC.

All that has changed, when in June 2020, Bank Negara Malaysia released its much-anticipated guidelines for eKYC in Malaysia. The policy document was created in recognition of the importance of digital identity as an enabler for user convenience and cost efficiency for financial institutions.  As such, the framework included guidelines for the use of AI and machine learning in identification and verification. AI is viewed by the regulator as a tool for “reducing human intervention”. 

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What Took Place When You Were Submitting an Online Form, Even When You Couldn't See It?

Ever wonder what happens when you submit an online application or fill out a form over the internet and hit the send button? These days, almost every inquiry, registration and submission can be processed digitally. eCommerce sites, service platforms and mobile apps incorporate online submissions in one way or another whether as a part of digital customer onboarding, customer support or troubleshooting. From a developer's standpoint, there are various methods, tactics and approaches when building form submission funnels, but there are certain key elements to consider.

Source: Pexels

Essentially, the purpose of online forms is to collect specific data about a website visitor such as for processing as part of a service subscription or for a college application among other things. 

In most cases, you'll probably find a relatively simple contact form containing fields for the kinds of details to be filled in (such as name, email address and phone number). Once you click submit, the next thing that happens is invisible to you as the applicant. Although you may not see it, there is an infrastructure in place to ensure that your data gets to where it's supposed to.

Data is Stored in a Submissions Storage

These days, many websites use an external service or system that helps to store all the data that's extracted from submitted forms. Form submissions might often contain the private information of website visitors or rather, potential clients, so the utmost priority for these service providers is ensuring that data is safely transferred and stored for later use by the respective site. Private data should not end up being published on the front end of sites for others to see and, for the most part, all authentic sources abide by this rule. Most sites will state this in some shape or form in their terms and conditions - so it would be a good idea to read through their sections. Numerous established form submission services help sites to securely store data. Security is likely to be a prominent value proposition for all of them.

Data collection systems are extremely crucial for many businesses online and are central to the customer onboarding process in most cases. Data collection systems help teams collect a standard set of information and allow companies to keep control and consistency as they collect data from their sites. These systems also help to organize the constant stream of data that pours in. This is why so many sites incorporate data collection systems, which are directly connected to the forms that visitors fill. Security and privacy are big parts of these systems, and many of the available third party data collection providers out there strive to accommodate businesses and consumers alike.