Secure and Efficient Online Identity Verification for a Smooth Customer Experience in 2023

To achieve a secure online identity verification process that's also quick and smooth for the customer is challenging, as companies need to prevent fraud and adhere to regulatory requirements without disrupting the user experience. Also, as consumer preferences, fraud tactics, and regulations evolve, businesses must stay up-to-date and implement effective solutions to ensure a robust yet smooth online identity verification process.

Challenges of Online Identity Verification

Verifying online customers' real-life identity is a challenging task and a necessity of businesses across industries. One of the biggest challenges with online ID verification is striking a balance between security and convenience. Many customers want a quick and easy online experience, but businesses must also ensure that they are properly verifying the identity of their users to prevent fraud and comply with regulations. Another challenge is dealing with the variety of ID documents that customers may use to verify their identities. Different countries have different forms of identification, and some may not be widely accepted or easily verified online. Additionally, fraudsters are constantly finding new ways to create fake IDs or steal legitimate ones, making it important for businesses to stay up to date on the latest fraud detection techniques. Ensuring user privacy and data protection is also a key challenge in online ID verification. Customers may be hesitant to provide sensitive personal information, such as a photo of their ID or a facial recognition scan, and businesses must take steps to protect this data from unauthorized access or misuse.

Effective Best Practices for Achieving a Smooth and Secure Online Identity Verification Process

Overall, businesses must strike a balance between security and convenience in their online ID verification processes, while also prioritizing compliance and user privacy. By implementing a robust and effective process, businesses can build trust with their customers and protect themselves from fraud and regulatory penalties. There is considerable information on the internet regarding best practices for remote identity verification and tips for a smooth customer experience. Naturally, not all solutions presented are equal regarding fraud detection and deterrence, compliance, and user experience. However, all expert-driven content on the subject seems to agree that at the most basic level, an online identity verification process should help businesses avoid fines and chargebacks for non-compliance with AML (Anti-money Laundering), KYC (Know Your Customer) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and be as convenient to legit customers as it is resilient to fraudsters.

This article presents a SaaS solution for online identity verification that manifests smooth customer experience and best practices and far exceeds the aforementioned essential criteria, providing added value for the company and its customers. This complete online identity process is a cross-platform and global SaaS solution that confirms a person's identity with the help of their government-issued ID document, a simple selfie, and a comprehensive set of market-leading technologies. The performance, accuracy, speed, and convenience of this solution is only matched by its level of security equal to that of state border authorities. For businesses, this solution streamlines, fortifies, and enhances their identity- and access management. For the online customers, it’s a quick, smooth, and easy two-step procedure done in seconds.

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Identity Document Validation for Online Verification

So, what is required of the user and what do the technical processes in the background accomplish?

Step 1: The unidentified prospective customer is prompted and guided to scan (take a photo of) their government-issued ID document.

Advanced document capture capabilities and intelligent document reader technology ensure that the online consumer can submit a perfect image of their ID document. Whether IDs are captured through mobile devices or web cameras, the image pre-processing techniques streamline document authentication and verification results. The fully automated technology recognises the type of identity document and country of origin within seconds with no manual labour. Instead, it uses AI and machine learning to identify the document type presented and check its legitimacy, backed by the world's largest document template database of over 12,000 templates of IDs issued in 248 countries and territories. The database supports a vast range of ID types, from standards such as passports, driver's licenses, and ID cards, to more specialised ones like refugee cards, voter cards, and more. This allows companies to verify the identity of virtually any customer anywhere in the world.

MRZ (Machine Readable Zone) data is automatically extracted and verified within 150 milliseconds. Each field is thoroughly validated, including its data, such as name, date of birth, country code, document number, expiry date, and more. The technology ensures that all information is relevant and valid, making it easy to spot fake IDs and fight fraud at early stages, even detecting the most sophisticated fakes. In addition, the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology intelligently analyses document layouts using the knowledge collected from the most extensive ID document template database on the market. It can precisely read and recognise all the fields in IDs and parse the data they contain, offering an unrivalled variety of data checks that help spot inconsistencies and fraud with a 99.7% accuracy rate.

Face Matching and Liveness Checking for Online Verification

Step 2: On the customer end, the unknown person is prompted to “start liveness verification” and receives guidance to snap a selfie.

The technology for biometric verification through face matching and liveness detection is designed to work seamlessly across different devices, ensuring that companies can verify the identity of their customers regardless of the device they are using. With advanced face-capture capabilities that can assess image quality and pick the best selfie available, the business obtains an ideal image of its customers, regardless of lighting conditions, glares, shadows, head position, and face size. By ensuring a high-quality photo, the business can automatically and accurately match the selfie taken by the customer with the reference photo in their submitted ID document with the help of a comprehensive set of technologies.

Meanwhile, advanced liveness detection ensures that a live person is applying, not a fake or imitation. This is achieved through AI-based techniques that rely on biometric parameters to detect the presence of a live person. By repelling different attack vectors, businesses can make their enrolment process more accurate and fraud-resistant, protecting themselves and their clients from fraudulent activity. Furthermore, face matching and liveness verification are performed in mere seconds.

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Overview, control, and management via The Portal

ZignSec provides a complete online identity verification process that saves time and effort for the company while satisfying customers with its speed and ease of use - a simple two-step procedure. Our SaaS solution allows businesses to verify their customers' identities accurately and efficiently, ensuring a secure and fraud-resistant process. Furthermore, ZignSec's ISO27001:2013 certification ensures the high standard of our processes regarding the secure handling of private data and identities. This means that we only allow access to the data to those that need to interact with it in order for it to be stored, and processed as per our merchant agreement, and that the data is encrypted at rest and in transit.

Any company using the service can log into ZignSec's customer portal anytime to check and manage the outcomes derived from their SaaS-implemented identification process in detail. In addition, all the KYC tools businesses need to meet regulatory requirements within and across jurisdictions are at their fingertips. Our clients can easily access and explore the various product- and service offerings available in ZignSec's aggregation platform via the portal and effortlessly scale their SaaS use up according to needs. Through the portal, the company client gets a "control panel" for a detailed yet straightforward overview of their users and customers, transactions and payments and easier management.

Overall, identity verification is a critical aspect of conducting business online, and companies must prioritize both security and the user experience in their verification processes. By choosing the right identity verification provider companies can ensure a smooth and efficient identity verification experience. This not only helps retain customers but also builds trust and enhances brand reputation, leading to increased conversions and customer loyalty. Would you like to know more about ZignSec’s SaaS offering and the opportunity to try our ID verification process yourself? Then, kindly book a time in the calendar to talk to one of our experts and test the demo.

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