There’s no big product launches this time around, but we’ve made improvements to Veriff Station, our SDKs and our web processes.

We’ve added risk labels! What’s a risk label? Every individual verification attempt carries its own risks, and we attach this data as labels for our clients to check. Different labels are more relevant to different clients, and they’re able to group them into different categories accordingly.

The other important thing to know about risk labels is that they’re only available for our Enterprise clients for the time being.

And we’re also moving some of our clients who’ve been with us for a while from our old system to the shiny new Veriff Station. And you can trust us, that it’s a serious upgrade. Proof that good things do come to those who wait.

This month we released our awesome NFC verification service for Android devices. NFC means near field communication - it’s the same technology that allows you to make contactless payments with your smartphone.

In this case, we utilize NFC to scan any supported ePassport to help us verify your data. Pretty cool right!

Following up on last month, we’ve now moved the selfie step to the end of our verification flow for Android users, after we made the same change for the web previously.

We’ve made updates to the way we deliver feedback within the verification process. We’ve tweaked the way feedback is delivered, so users can more easily understand how to improve their photos while being verified.

Our product has also had impressive accessibility improvements - but we’re going to be revealing more about them next week.

Finally, a couple of smaller notes - our clients can now remove the ‘Thank you’ screen at the end of the verification flow, if they want to get their customer signed up a little quicker. And we’ve also made small quality improvements to our product overall, as we always strive to do.

Thanks again for keeping up with our updates and as always if you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it via our social media channels - Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter.

Wondering what Veriff have been up to in May 2020? Here’s your chance to find out!

As our office reopens, and the sun begins to shine, we’re excited to share how Veriff has improved in May.

What’s New - May 2020: Veriff Product Update

To give the readers a bit of background on yourself, can you tell me about your professional history before joining Veriff? 

For that, I would have to go back to 1995, when I was still living in Finland. I was attending university at the time and came back to Estonia for vacation… and well, I never went back. At the time, Estonia was in a really sweet spot and full of opportunities. There were only a handful of people living in the country who had really seen much of the outside world. Having lived in Finland already put me in a more beneficial position than many. 

During summer break I started searching for a job and looked into something connected to banking. Even though I didn’t know anything about banking at the time, I contacted Hansabank and offered my skills. Noticing they didn’t have a web page, I mentioned I could create one for them. They politely declined, stating that banks are serious institutions and wouldn’t be interested in a webpage (a couple years later they became fully involved in web banking). Instead of a webpage, I was offered a position working on ATMs. Then, 5 years later at the age of only 26 I was leading a team of 120 people.

Around this time, I met the people who started Skype and joined them in 2005 as Head of Quality Engineering and moved up to a Managing Director position before leaving in 2013. I then went on to a newer startup, Pipedrive, in 2015 as Head of Quality Engineering before finally joining Veriff in 2018 in the role of VP of Engineering.

One thing of note, and something I recommend others do, is for all of these companies I became a shareholder to at least some degree. It’s something that helps motivate me and gives me the extra push to ensure the company I work for excels. It helps make me feel less like just an employee and more like one of the team, pushing me to keep in mind “what is best for the company?” which is the most important question there is. 

What would you say attracted you to in Veriff in the first place?

I guess it goes back to my last days at Skype when I created a list of currently unsolved problems in the world which would determine my next adventure. Passwords and a low trust in internet security stood out as potential areas to work on.

When the founders of Veriff approached me with their plan to strengthen their engineering, I immediately knew this was something I wanted to be a part of as Veriff could solve the existing identity verification and trust issues on the internet. Having a digital identity maintained by an independent provider could give an assurance of trust to individuals that for many, governments could not. 

Although many websites offer types of identity verification, it’s still too easy to create multiple fake accounts which makes fraud overwhelming difficult to manage. I’ve already seen that many companies, both big and small, are waking up to this need for more rigid verification. There’s currently just a very clumsy, manual process that many sites use to verify individuals.

Veriff’s more manageable solution to verify a person by using something as simple as a selfie accompanied by a document picture, which then goes through an automated verification process really streamlines the whole experience. This allows providers who use Veriff to not only simplify their verification process, but also helps them to fight fraud. That ability to prevent fraud can and usually does save companies a significantly large amount of money in the end.

How would you say your experience in Veriff has gone so far?

Well, they say a year in a startup is like 5 years in an established company, so it doesn’t take long before you’re already a veteran. 2019 was a really important year for the company and for me as well. At the beginning of the year, we had only 5 engineers and by the end we were up to 80 in cross functional teams. That level of growth, getting processes in place, organizational design, setting roles and responsibilities – this is something I truly enjoy, planning everything out.

Increasing the engineering team so quickly meant that a lot of focus needed was placed into the interview process. We had to hire fast while still being able to maintain a certain status quo. I like to call this “hiring fast, but slow”, meaning you’re not hiring people just because you need a body to fill the position, but because you really believe they’re the best candidate while still keeping an efficient process in mind for rapid recruitment.

When hiring, it’s important to make sure consensus is established within a group of interviewers to prevent the chances of creating an echo chamber for yourself. At Veriff, we’ve been lucky to have a tandem approach to hiring and many other topics between myself and our CTO Jaanus Kivistik that creates a system of checks and balances necessary for quick, quality decision making.

How do you see the future of trust and identity on the internet, and what do you think Veriff’s role will be? 

I think worldwide, there is (or will be) a demand to have one’s digital identity maintained. Letting people be the owner of their stored and protected identity within an infrastructure like Veriff’s platform allows them to use it in a safe manner on the web when they need to. Veriff’s ability to convert a person’s physical identification document into an online identity that you can use anywhere is something that will happen one way or another.

The Assisted Image Capture feature that we introduced near the end of last year is one of the first steps towards making a higher quality identity online. 

At the end of the day, we try to make honest people’s lives easier while capturing all the bad apples in the process.

In November last year you, together with two other engineers, launched a podcast called “Algorütm”. What’s the story behind it? 

I was actually approached with this idea, as a way to help engage with all of the developers in Estonia. Although I’m the least development minded of the hosts, the collection of us can help highlight the interest areas perhaps better than many developers can, especially with the inclusion of guests on each episode.

Hosts of Algorütm Tiit Paananen, Priit Liivak and Sergei Anikin. Photo by Jake Farra. 

I think of it as a way to give something back, while also getting something in return. While a lot has changed over the last 25 years in IT, fundamentals are still the same. For me personally, it gives me a chance to really study and learn about each topic before we record. 

Overall, dealing with a developer audience, the feedback has been positive, but you also know that if there are any hiccups that occur on the show, we’re sure to hear about it.

We’ve covered a lot of how your professional journey has gone, but can you tell me about your hobbies? You’re known to be somewhat of a legend in the startup community in Estonia with all the different activities you partake in.

I think my interest in other areas started in Moscow in ‘92 with my first skydiving jump. I was working at a bar and went to the airfield, paid $2 and jumped out of an aircraft, simple as that. From that point, skydiving really dominated my life for quite a while until I got my pilot’s license in 2005. My carbon footprint is huge, but at least I was the one holding the steering stick.

Becoming a pilot ended up being really beneficial in my day to day work as well. All the preparations, flight plans, checklists, alternative scenarios made me appreciate planning ahead and helped to apply the same sensibilities in software testing for example. 

Some people here also know me from my connections with the local Põhjala Brewery which I helped found near the end of my career with Skype. The craft beer industry was just starting in Estonia around 2012 so the timing was perfect. We’re now the 4th largest brewery in Estonia and ship to 30-40 countries, meaning most of our production goes to export. In 2018 and 2019, Põhjala was even able to make it into Ratebeer’s top 100 list, the only Estonian brewery to do so. 

Lastly, let’s do some “quickfire” questions to wrap up this interview.

That’s a tough question. In general I’ve been particularly interested in Estonia’s history before becoming independent, but on the business side… The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. 

The book is written by two previous Navy Seals and it describes how you can apply platoon leadership into business ownership and management. I enjoyed it so much, I ended up doing a presentation about it for the office.

Well, I don’t usually have time to read the news, so I instead try to get digested and distilled information from some of the local political podcasts. I would recommend those.

If you weren’t an engineer, what would you be?

I had a different answer to this before (pilot), but during the current isolation I’ve got myself really into baking, particularly sourdough. So, who knows, maybe I would become a baker?

The most impactful advice I’ve been given, is that with everything happening inside of your head, you can actually be in control, be the driver of your actions and decisions. You don’t need to follow along a certain path just because it seems like that is the “correct” direction.

Mixing Work and Fun Together is Tiit Paananen’s, Veriff VP Engineering, Recipe for a Balanced Life. Technology and internet trust levels are driving factors in his life, yet they are far from the only thing that interest him, as you'll see. 

Tiit Paananen had already been a staple in the Estonian tech industry for a couple decades before joining Veriff as the VP of Engineering. Although both technology and internet trust levels are driving factors in his life, they are far from the only thing that interest him, as you’ll see.

Mixing Work and Fun Together is Recipe for a Balanced Life

AML regulations, more specifically KYC processes, have also been affected by this new reality. This article covers key aspects of how this pandemic will impact the future of the financial industry - what are the Covid-19 compliance challenges, possible outcomes and how Veriff could help to tackle the issues. 

This pandemic has, in many cases, brought out the best in us as we work hard to support each other in this scary new world. Additionally, the lack of physical interactions has illuminated several compliance weaknesses and vulnerabilities that we can overcome together. 

Social distancing and quarantine mandates present several unique challenges to businesses obligated by law to perform KYC. Historically, many of these processes are physical - such as interactions with tellers at bank branches. This is where the digitization of the KYC process comes into play. Although there are laws that allow remote onboarding in industries such as financial and credit institutions, many have not yet implemented KYC processes that can operate on a fully digital basis. 

On April 1, The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) president issued a statement about Covid-19 and measures to combat illicit financing. Governments are asked to work closely with financial institutions and other services to implement flexible mechanisms that have a risk-based approach to face the new challenges posed by this pandemic. 

The FATF’s president, Xiangming Liu points out, “The FATF encourages the fullest use of responsible digital customer onboarding and delivery of digital financial services in light of social distancing measures.”

We live in a digital society in which institutions need to be at the forefront of new technologies. There is 13% annual growth in digital transactions and by 2022 60% of the world’s GDP is expected to be digitised. FATF encourages the use of technology, including Fintech, Regtech and Suptech with the aim of minimizing contact between people while providing the service. With this statement, the Intergovernmental organization Financial Action Task Force not only seeks to open financial institutions to the possibility of venturing into digital identification methods, but also to implement the FATF standards.

FATF has issued a guideline on Digital ID which highlights the security benefits of a digital identity. It improves security, privacy and the convenience of remotely identifying people for onboarding and conducting transactions that mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF calls for prioritizing the key tools in the fight against money laundering, especially related to fraud, terrorist financing, and the associated risks presented by the current scenario in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

FATF is not the only institution that has issued guidelines and promoted the use of digital media for onboarding clients when using digital financial services. Both US FinCEN and Hong Kong’s KHMA have chosen a similar approach. Because of Covid-19, large industries are beginning to take initiatives in the United States to opt for the use of digital identities in order to support lockdowns. Telehealth restrictions for Medicare have been waived in the United States, and it is now possible to hold remote consultations with slightly more flexible criteria.

The year 2020 brings along a series of changes for the financial sector. All industries, not just fintechs, are being forced to go digital. However, focusing on digital requires KYC processes to be effective with a level of security equal to or greater than the previous procedure. Industries are looking for reliable partners to help them  meet AML requirements and delight customers.

This is where Veriff comes in. Simply verifying document validity and matching it to the person seemingly presenting the document is not sufficient - it needs an intelligent decision engine to verify a person’s identity. A one-size-fits-all solution does not work either. 

Veriff is an identity verification provider that configures its checks and services for each client according to the compliance requirements, unique risk appetite and internal processes for customer onboarding. We help companies find the best ratio between fraud-prevention and the pass-rates. Our decision profile - a highly customizable and configurable flow - makes it possible to scale fraud protection up or down according to the requirements for compliance, speed, and conversions. 

Also, what sets us apart is the variety and richness of data that we collect from each session. With the help of artificial intelligence, Veriff analyses hundreds of technological and behavioural variables in seconds to make a verification decision. We cross-compare sessions and leverage device and network information, customer behavioural information in our video first approach. All of this data enables us to make fast, yet accurate decisions.

All in all, we have the necessary technology to digitize the onboarding process for new clients and simplify the due diligence that subjects bound by the Anti-Money Laundering scheme must perform to use financial services without increasing risk. Therefore, it is expected that industries traditionally focused on the face-to-face approach look for digital alternatives. According to International Data Corporation, by 2024, over 50% of user interface interactions will use AI-enabled computer vision, speech, natural language processing (NLP), and AR/VR. Veriff is ready to help make it happen. 

COVID-19 has had and continues to have a tremendous impact on every aspect of our lives. Face to face interaction has been limited to a minimum; people have had to stay at home and work remotely, and many businesses have been closed down due to either government orders or lack of customers. 

COVID-19 has had and continues to have a tremendous impact on every aspect of our lives. Face to face interaction has been limited to a minimum; people have had to stay at home and work remotely, and many businesses have been closed down due to either government orders or lack of customers. As a result, various industries in the market have been hit hard by the economic impacts of this crisis. 

The Financial Action Task Force Pushes for Digitalization

Financial inclusion is not just having access to a bank account. Affordable insurance, loans, remittances, savings, and investing accounts are all financial services that can make a drastic difference in life quality. Back in 2012, it was estimated that a whopping $15.3 trillion is needed to satisfy life insurance needs in the United States alone. Comparatively, in 2015 7% of people in the United States didn't have a bank account, a drop from 7.7% in 2013. With each month passing by, more financial services are moved online. In 2019, over 4.3 billion people were connected to the internet with the number growing rapidly. Having access to the global network within our fingertips not only gives online FinTechs a winning edge, but pushes the traditional brick and mortar institutions towards adding an array of digital products into their offering. As Bill Gates has pointed out, it’s not all about planning and making the upgrade towards online banking, but also maintaining a secure transition while we do it. 

Creating access to financial services for the remaining 1.7 billion unbanked people around the world is without a doubt one of the world’s greatest challenges. Luckily new startups emerge on a monthly basis, taking on financial inclusion in different parts of the world. One example is an upcoming neobank super app Jingle Pay, empowering the unbanked population of 168 million people in the Arab Region, with access to a bank account within minutes and an aggregate of financial services, such as Nano Financing and Remittance. Small enterprises in developing markets tend to have difficulties with opening up bank accounts and integrating with a payment service provider. This process can take up to 3 months and requires reserving capital with the banks to get service. Jingle Pay however, is enabling SMEs with an all in one solution where they can get bank accounts and online payment processing to get to market faster without fees and minimum balance requirements.

It’s great to see that financial services are moving to digital platforms, but we need to be mindful about identity verification. As money laundering accounts for approximately 2%-5% of the world's GDP, we have to be able to verify where the resources come from. Having a scalable identity verification method helps online financial institutions do exactly that. Online IDV solution providers, like Veriff, can confirm anyone’s identity online, without physical interactions, in less that a minute. Veriff’s end user flow is designed to make it easier for users to convert, while artificial intelligence is leveraged to educate people about IDV in real time. Educating the end-user brings online financial services closer to those in need, which shows the imperative role of ID verification in moving towards financial inclusion. 

The prevalence and necessity of digital banking broadens access and opportunities for all, but also leaves the door wide open for fraud and bad actors. This throws a wrench in the process of deploying global financial inclusion. Imagine, as an example, an old-school fraud attempt at a physical bank branch, maybe a twin using his sibling’s ID to get a loan - this could only be attempted once. This twin either gets caught, or gets a loan. Taking this process online, fraudsters can easily scale it up and attempt multiple times within a couple of minutes or seconds. Veriff prevents this kind of digital fraud by assigning each verification session a unique fingerprint which is later crosslinked against others. This is one way we can immediately detect recurring fraud attempts, putting a full stop to the scaling process. Fingerprinting and other techniques help us to make online banks like Jingle Pay more trusted and move the world one step closer to financial inclusion.

1 billion people in the world don't have proof of identity and they are all facing the challenge of financial inclusion. One step to tackle that challenge is digitising more financial products over time. However, we have to be mindful of maintaining proper security, where online ID verification is integral. Providing a seamless verification method, such as Veriff’s solution guided by artificial intelligence in real time, educates end-users and prevents fraud. A simple sign-up process, however leads to a wider use of digitalized financial services, bringing us closer to achieving financial inclusion.

In 2010 2.5 billion people around the world lacked access to financial services (McKinsey, 2010). Since then progress has been made, decreasing this number to 1.7 billion in 2017. An additional 15% of the world’s population now has access to banking services. One critical component to inciting widespread financial inclusion is the ability to verify identities online while keeping fraud to a minimum.

In 2010 2.5 billion people around the world lacked access to financial services (McKinsey, 2010). Since then progress has been made, decreasing this number to 1.7 billion in 2017. An additional 15% of the world’s population now has access to banking services. Those of us with consistent access to financial services, a process known as financial inclusion, can’t take it for granted. And there is still a lot of work to do. One critical component to inciting widespread financial inclusion is the ability to verify identities online while keeping fraud to a minimum.

The Importance of Identity Verification in Solving Financial Inclusion

With so much of life conducted online, having excellent passwords is absolutely essential. Nearly every time you sign up for a website, you’re asked to create a password. And more often than not, you’re giving that website some amount of personal information. Maybe just your name and email address, but that alone can be a risk to you and your identity.

The difficult reality is that people have created numerous programmes designed to crack passwords, break into people’s accounts and steal identities and much more. So if your password lacks complexity, you’re leaving yourself open to a number of potential crimes.

With this in mind we decided to offer some advice on how to keep your accounts as secure as possible, and stop prying eyes gaining access.

The first piece of advice comes from a man who knows a thing or two about security - Edward Snowden. We won’t go into his backstory here (they’ve made a movie about it, in case you want to catch up!), but the short version is that he was a whistleblower who leaked evidence of massive global surveillance. See - he knows a thing or two about people being watched online.

In 2015, he spoke to British journalist John Oliver on his show Last Week Tonight, and in under 3 minutes gave some of the best advice around passwords you’re ever likely to hear. Watch it, and then come back.

His advice was to create passphrases, not passwords. So taking a memorable phrase, adding some alterations, and remembering that. Say Ver1ffIzth3gr8e5t for example (or ‘Veriff is the greatest’ in plain English). It’s far harder to hack than your dog’s birthday, or your first address.

And once you’ve entered a passphrase like this enough times, it tends to stick in your memory. But of course, you shouldn’t use the same passphrase everywhere, so how do you remember them all?

This is where we come to password managers, their simplicity, and their brilliance.

If you’re yet to start using a password manager - we would highly recommend it. It will securely store all of your passwords in one place, and is normally accessible online and via an app. The majority of password managers also feature browser plugins, so they can autofill passwords for you as long as you’ve signed in for them.

And this means you only need to remember one super crazy passphrase - which lets you get in to your password manager!

So which to choose? Well here are five of the best password managers out there you might want to look into:

No matter which you choose - taking the time to set up and use a password manager is worthwhile. It will improve your personal cybersecurity immensely. Snowden would be proud.

There’s one more added element when it comes to security online that’s worth mentioning here - two-factor authentication. Sometimes called 2FA.

2FA adds an extra layer of security on top of your password, and is easy to set up once you’ve got the knack of it. Not every website offers 2FA, but for those that do, it’s worth adding. You could start with adding it for your email client (Gmail, as an example, encourages use of 2FA).

The easiest way to set it up is by downloading an authenticator app for your smartphone - Google Authenticator is normally the default, but others are available. You can then follow the setup process on any website offering 2FA, normally involving scanning an onscreen QR code, to add this website to your authenticator app.

You don’t normally have to go through 2FA every time you log in, more like once a month, but you’ll be asked for the code that is showing within your app at that moment. And what you’ll notice is that the codes are constantly refreshing, making them far harder to hack or guess. Nifty stuff.

Well, for a start, you can go and check how secure your password is. There are a lot of different ways to do this online, and a lot of password managers offer this as a standard feature.

And then it’s up to you - we’d recommend getting your hands on a password manager, and setting up 2FA, and doing whatever you can to keep yourself safe online.

Veriff is here to help companies welcome honest people, and we’d love the honest people to be safe in everything they’re doing as well. So can a password ever be perfect? Perhaps not, but with a passphrase, a password manager and 2FA, you’re a lot close to password perfection.

With so much of life conducted online, having excellent passwords is absolutely essential. Nearly every time you sign up for a website, you have to create a password. Here's some advice on how to do it well.

Veriff provides identity verification (IDV) for online companies to help them connect with honest people - you may even have been through, or yet to go through, our process. However, not every website requires IDV, but the majority do require one specific piece of security - a password.

Identity verification has been around for thousands of years, with one of the earliest recorded ‘passports’ being created in 1414 by King Henry V. Clearly that wasn’t important enough to make it into Shakespeare’s play. 

Understandably though, documents have gone through quite the evolution since then. What were once single sheets of paper are now indispensable items often containing electronic chips with all of our necessary data.

For most people, the ID document they’re normally carrying daily is their driver’s licence, as you normally only need a passport when you’re going abroad. And it’s not often that you’re asked to use either to prove you are who you say you are. As examples you might need an ID when:

You look a bit too young to be buying that wine

This list could go on for a while, but the reality is that apart from going abroad, everything on the above list can now be done online (yes, even the wine). And for businesses, identity verification is required for challenges on the opposite side, things like:

Know-your-customer (KYC) & Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Compliance

And there are scores of other reasons. But how do you possibly prove who you are, or that you’re over 18, when you’re not in the room with the person, or business, you’re attempting to prove it to? This is where IDV and Veriff come in.

The basic process of identity verification is producing a document confirming who you are, potentially your age, and your nationality or citizenship. In the past, this would be done in person, normally after some amount of queueing or at a scheduled appointment.

However, now so much of our life is online, we’re being asked to prove our identity more regularly, and the easier this is, the happier we are. People may scream about the lost nature of trust, but you can read about so many types of online fraud, that you’ll quickly appreciate why verifying your identity is absolutely crucial.

So how does Veriff verify your identity? Here’s the basic process:

We ask you to take a photo of your ID document (normally a driver’s license, passport or ID card) either with your webcam or smartphone - it’s a live process

We ask you to take a quick selfie with the same device

Yep. Two steps. We even offer advice while you’re taking the selfie to make sure you get it perfect on the first try. And you’ll receive a decision in seconds - if everything is in order you’re verified. And if you’re committing fraud, well, weird that you’re reading this blog at all, but anyway you’re denied.

As much as we like to have faith in humanity, and it is mighty important, not everyone is honest. And in a world where we make transactions on an almost daily basis with faceless websites and apps, it’s important to know who’s legit.

When you buy something online, you might do a quick Google and check that the site has reviews elsewhere showing it to be trustworthy. It’s why eBay and Amazon both have ratings for sellers and products, and AirBnB offers similar for renters and home-owners. You need to be able to trust in what you’re paying for, and people need to trust that you’re a legitimate customer.

So a crucial element to this two-way relationship is verification on both sides. Businesses might have a licence, or logos on their homepage to prove they’re trustworthy, and you get verified to prove you are. And as verification gets better, trust begins to build, because the dishonest people can’t trick anyone anymore. We all win.

Well, as is obvious, IDV is our bread and butter. This is what we do, and we’re proud to say we’re pretty damn good at it. But it’s how we do it that’s special.

We use machine learning and artificial intelligence to help make our system as automated as possible. This results in accurate decisions in mere moments. We’re also incredibly wise to the security challenges of the modern world, meaning data is always safe with us. We won’t be losing it, and we’ll never be selling it.

We partner up with businesses who want to work with honest people, and help them make sure that’s the case. And we’re in it for the long haul - making constant improvements for all of the businesses we work with, so they have the best possible verification process for them. One size fits all doesn’t work when it comes to this.

We foresee a world where people have more control over their data, who sees it, and where it’s made available. This is a cornerstone of our ambitions, but that’s another story for another day. For now, we hope you have a clearer view of what identity verification is and why it’s needed. If you’re interested in Veriff then check out our social media channels - Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram - or reach out to sales@veriff.com, we’re happy to chat.

“Once more unto the breach - as long as you’ve all got your passports? Yes? Good.”

It’s about as straightforward a title as you’ll ever see, but we thought it was about time to address one of the big questions about identity verification (IDV) - what is it, and why the world needs it. And more importantly, why it needs Veriff!

What is identity verification? And why is it necessary?

We’re thrilled to share a little more about a brand new product, improvements across the board, and a new addition to our SDKs.

In March we announced the launch of our latest product - Assisted Image Capture. We have a full explanation of what it is and what it does in an earlier blog, but in short:

Users get feedback on their selfies and document photos in real time

This means they take perfect photos on the first try and get verified - we've even seen 20% more customers completing verification first-time, it's that good!

For anyone getting verified in North America, life is a little easier, as we’ve improved our barcode extraction for documents from both countries. This means we can more easily scan the barcode on a US driver's licence and grab all the information, confirming the information shown on the photo side.

Our awesome development team has been tinkering with our overall verification process and managed to improve conversions across the board. So what did they do:

Moved the selfie step to the end, meaning users immediately have to grab their ID document and don’t get halfway through a verification before realizing they need it

We now give feedback if you’re photographing the wrong document, so you can go back and change your selection, or grab the right one if it’s close by

Finally, we ask permission to access your camera as soon as you start the verification process, so you know it’s needed straight away

Your Veriff dashboard now makes it easy to start a verification session instantly, using an onscreen QR code. You can scan it with any QR scanner or with our Veriff demo app which can be downloaded in Google Play or Apple’s App Store.

We’ve also added a ‘Developer’ role to the Veriff dashboard, allowing members of your team to manage integrations within your dashboard. 

Finally, unique identifiers (the information you use to identify your customers in your Veriff dashboard) can now be 400 characters long, and you can see them in session view. So it’s easier to see who’s been verified and who’s been declined.

Our API has had a single, and noteworthy, update as the /decision endpoint has been revamped, and offers you more information than previously. This lets you check on the decision for any verification session at any time. Useful for checking on what webhooks you’re receiving, if you’re into that.

There’s a new software development kit in town, as we’ve added a ReactNative option for companies using that framework. 

Last but not least, we’ve added our ‘waiting’ screen to our Android SDK, so users being verified on an Android device will see it when they’re between verification and a final decision. This adds a level of clarity and helps give fast feedback to people who need to retake any photos (e.g. due to poor lighting or missing details) - resulting in a higher success rate.

As always, we welcome any feedback via email or our social media channels - Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter - and we’re sending everyone kind wishes and good vibes as we all get through this together. Happy Veriffing!

It’s a bumper edition of our product update this time, covering the last 3 months. Here’s what our intrepid Veriffians have been doing during these challenging times.

What’s New - February to April 2020: Veriff Product Update

Last month, we announced the launch of our newest product - Assisted Image Capture. Today, we want to explain what on earth it is, and how it could supercharge your verification conversions.

Well, it’s like sending a professional photographer to stand next to someone going through verification and make sure they get it right the first time. Just, using AI instead of an actual professional photographer.

In a standard verification process, you’re likely to be asked to take photos of your ID document and probably a selfie. Sometimes you need to repeat a line on screen, or wink at the camera, but Veriff doesn’t need any of that nonsense.

The problem with the standard process is that even though it sounds easy, people don’t know what the quality of the photo needs to be. We understand that verification is often a brand new experience for people, and this is why it can be tough to get it right the first time.This is how you end up with selfies that are too dark, or don’t show a whole face, or document images which are blurry or don’t include the MRZ (that’s the machine-readable zone, those two indecipherable lines at the bottom of your passport photo page).

With Assisted Image Capture, this is all a thing of the past. How? Easy - we show onscreen messages to the person being verified, letting them know if there’s a problem with their photo in real-time. They don’t have to wait for hours for feedback to find out they failed verification because they didn’t switch a light on.

Instead of continuing to explain it, we put together this handy video guide with the help of our co-founder Janer which demonstrates it perfectly:

Assisted Image Capture - How does it work?

You might have already figured this bit out, but let’s call it out anyway. If your customers only need to go through verification once, and it’s made as simple as possible, then they’ll get it done, finish their sign up, and stick with you.

Making the verification process less daunting appeals to honest customers - they understand more easily what you require of them and they’re more willing to provide it. 

Allied to this, we’ve moved the selfie step to the end of the flow, meaning they photograph their ID document first and they’re not left scrambling for it midway through being verified.

If you’re not convinced by the benefits of Assisted Image Capture, there’s one last thing we need to mention - you don’t even need to use Veriff as your IDV provider to use it. It plugs in to your existing system easily, so you can get the incredible benefits it brings without going all in with Veriff.

For our partners who’ve done this, along with the conversion increase, they’ve seen a decrease in emails about issues related to IDV. So, it’s not just verified customers who are happy, but customer support too.

If you want to know more about Assisted Image Capture, or you’re interested in Veriff you can check out our social media channels below, or reach out to us at sales@veriff.com. We’d love to welcome you as Veriff’s next partner.

Veriff's unique way to improve conversion - Assisted Image Capture

For the past decade, the world has shifted more and more to the digital sphere and people are used to getting everything done as quickly and easily as possible. We are all looking for ways to save time and money while going about our daily business. In order to do business online, one needs to know who you're dealing with - are they actually the person they claim to be? Verifying a person’s identity online is an integral part of any business.

Veriff is happy to announce our partnership with the German digital identity platform Verimi. They offer a fast, secure and convenient identity verification as well as user authentication in the German market for regulated sectors. These include financial services, insurance sector, e-government, mobility, ehealth and telecommunication.

Verimi focuses on saving and re-using verified digital identities. Users can either transfer their identity data from their existing accounts, such as bank  or health insurance, or their data is captured during various onboarding processes through Verimi’s partners. The idea is that users can save their identity data for instant access and re-use them down the line by consistently maintaining high levels of trust.

Verimi was looking for a seamless solution for verifying their users’ ID card and driver's licences within onboarding. This is where Veriff came in. During the vendor selection process, Verimi decided to partner up with Veriff because of its attractive product features combining high verification standards and a great user experience.

With Verimi, users only have to verify their identity once. Then they can save their data securely and re-use this data whenever a new verification is required by one of Verimi's partners. Next time around, the user can verify their ID using Verimi with just one click. Verimi has a banking licence issued by the German financial regulator, enabling them to store identity data compliant with AML (Anti Money Laundering) laws and transfer them with the same quality level to other partners at the user's request. For companies, Verimi can increase customer conversion levels while meeting all regulatory requirements at the same time.

Roland Adrian, Managing Director at Verimi, says: “Verimi is a state-of-the-art identity platform that bundles multiple identification methods in just one UX. Having chosen Veriff as our new partner, we now have the opportunity to offer an even more advanced portfolio of fully digital identification methods. In particular, with Veriff we are ready to offer fully digital identification processes serving various trust levels, e.g. in use cases for financial services, insurance and mobility.”

Veriff will support Verimi by adding another easy, fast and reliable identification method to their identity platform. Veriff provides an added value for a wide range of Verimi partners that need to verify their identity outside of a specific regulation such as car sharing, leases, and rents, but also for age verification and other use cases.

The Veriff product delivers a fast and secure process with high conversion rate. The addition of Veriff IDV to Verimi suite is a perfect compliment to existing authentication options and sign-and-pay services.

Veriff is happy to announce the partnership with the German digital identity management company Verimi.

The sudden and sizable need for reliable tools to support remote work at an enormous scale has global tech usage surging. Fintech app usage has surged over 70% in Europe alone. Video conferencing leader Zoom has seen traffic quadruple and Cisco WebEx hosted over 70 million meetings last month. Microsoft reports over a 775% increase in monthly users for its Teams communication software - and that’s only in Italy. Slack is supporting, at times, over 12 million concurrent users. Here at Veriff, our daily volumes are quickly multiplying and demand for new use cases to support remote work is climbing. (It is important to note that all companies mentioned are currently donating their resources and technologies to those in need throughout this crisis; here at Veriff we’re donating one million free IDV sessions.)

A silver lining to these dark times is the opportunity to identify and execute new use cases for identity verification (IDV) to support a world in need of stable, reliable digital trust. Of course, the need for more traditional IDV use cases in payments, finance, sharing economies, telehealth, and many other industries only continues to grow in importance and, as always, Veriff teams are working at 110% to support our partners. But we’ve also come across an opportunity to build trust online while the world stays home, as we build and adjust to a new “normal”.

Internal IDV to Support Remote Hiring, Onboarding, Private Meetings and Secure IP

At Veriff, we’re enormously grateful for the opportunity to help businesses implement internal identity verification processes to supplement the myriad of physical verification practices that they can’t implement right now. Though many small-and medium-sized businesses (which we must bolster by paying forward the support they’ve given us over the years) are struggling, a multitude of distributed workforces, software enterprises and Big Tech companies in general continue to scale, operate, and provide critical digital resources.

Scaling means hiring and onboarding, which require identity verification—sometimes traditionally taking place on an employee’s first day, when presenting an ID at reception and receiving internal credentials. This also applies to interns and contractors, the latter often being verified on a weekly or monthly basis. 

In sectors like Finance, Government, IT and Security, there are materials, exchanges, data sets, and communications that should only be accessed, or attended, by specific individuals. In the good old days, losing your internal credentials might have warranted a stroll over to your IT Manager’s desk who had the preexisting knowledge that you are truly you, and a legitimate employee of the company. This interaction is not possible in today’s world. How can your IT manager verify identities over Slack, or email? The same question applies to the hiring manager who makes a copy of your Drivers’ License on your first day. The consequences of an uninvited person attending a shareholder meeting or a bad actor gaining access to internal systems can be disastrous. With their teams working at home, businesses (both for internal and customer/user security, and to comply with regulatory requirements) need to ensure that data like PII and proprietary code can’t be viewed, misused or stolen.

This list of use cases only continues to grow. Veriff has developed and implemented customized solutions to solve these problems in a matter of weeks, and in a variety of ways. Our incredible and experienced team is working harder than ever to help our partners quickly build and maintain trust from a distance. Working from home presents yet another global trust leap that we must traverse together, and technology is that bridge. Smart, customizable, and low-friction systems and processes yield consistent and reliable results. If WFH, or work from home, is the new normal--at least for now--then at Veriff, we will lead the way in TFH: trust from home.

The world is working from home, and digital identity and remote verification capabilities are more important than ever. We suddenly find ourselves in a contactless world.

The world is working from home, and digital identity and remote verification capabilities are more important than ever. We suddenly find ourselves in a contactless world. Our lives and well-beings now truly revolve around and depend on digital resources and tools, especially when it comes to our jobs.

Renting a car is as simple as making a booking, agreeing on where to pick up the car and showing your driver’s license. Listing a car to share isn’t exactly rocket science and, if you don’t need your car in the immediate future, it’s a good way to make a quick buck. Wide coverage and a large user base makes Blox Car the top choice to go for when looking to rent or list a car in Finland. 

With nearly 15,000 monthly visitors on their website, Blox Car’s strong team has taken on a mission to build an easy and, most importantly, safe peer-to-peer car-sharing service. Blox Car has seen rapid growth over the past few months, and chose Veriff as a partner to accelerate customer onboarding. 

Considering that car-sharing is a relatively new industry, establishing trust is a key challenge. Having a solid and scalable identity verification process allows the platform’s users to be sure that they know who they are transacting with. This is where Veriff comes in, helping Blox Car solve the challenge of trust. 

Importance of identity verification for Blox Car

After partnering up with Veriff, Blox Car has made the sign-up process for their platform as simple as ABC. In order to verify your identity, you simply need to have:

A device (smartphone, tablet, computer) with a camera

The process itself is simple and takes only a few minutes. You need to:

Capture pictures of the IDs front & back side

Within just around a minute you will be granted access to the platform, having hundreds of vehicles to choose from. 

Through crosslinking network and device data, analyzing facial biometrics and referencing the document to Veriff’s internal and external databases, fraudulent sign-up attempts are identified and mitigated. This contributes to the overall hygiene of the platform, ensuring a high quality service for both renters and listers. All of this is done within a couple of minutes, so users don’t have to wait when signing up.

Veriff Station gives SMEs, such as Blox Car, an opportunity to outsource the identity verification of their customers, so they could focus on what’s really important to them. With tiers as low as 70 verifications a month, Veriff provides a smart and scalable solution to verify your clients with no commitment and flexible payment plans. Learn more at https://www.veriff.com/

Transportation is often taken for granted. It makes our lives more connected and allows for more freedom in travel. Owning a car is one of the most popular options, however it is also expensive. 

Transportation is often taken for granted. It makes our lives more connected and allows for  more freedom in travel. Owning a car is one of the most popular options, however it is also expensive. Car-sharing makes it possible to save up on the costs of owning a car, split maintenance, insurance and other hidden fees between multiple people. 

Blox Car partners up with Veriff, preventing fraud at scale

What does the centre need Veriff’s service for? There are about 90 different companies and foundations that organise camps for about 30,000 kids in Estonia every year. All of these camps need qualified and well trained camp managers and counselors to take care of the kids coming to the camp. The Estonian Youth Work Centre issues the official certificates for the camp counselors, organises different trainings for the camp staff as well as carries out the qualification tests and exams. Each year about 500 - 600 people participate in their trainings and take exams.

In the current emergency situation caused by the Coronovirus, where face to face contact is very limited, the center had to find a new solution for carrying out the trainings and taking the qualification test. This is where Veriff came into play. Instead of having a physical presence in a classroom to take the exam, Veriff’s solution enables the centre to remotely identify the person taking the exam. That means, the tests will be taken virtually and Veriff will verify the person’s identity digitally.

„The biggest worry for us was how to identify a person before they start taking the exam. It’s also vital that all personal data of the people taking the exams will be handled with care and in accordance with the law,“ said the Head of the Estonian Youth Work Centre, Edgar Schlümmer.  

This is where Veriff’s solution comes in. Before a person taking the exam logs in the e-exam platform, they receive a link to identify themselves. For remote identification, the person needs a device with a camera and a valid government issued ID like a living permit, an ID card, or a passport. After the person has identified themselves, Veriff directs them to the e-exam website to log in and take the exam.

As to the trainings for the managers and counselors, many of them are done virtually via video streams or take place on different online platforms. 

“ We have experienced lots of great teamwork to manage the challenges we are facing in the emergency situation. We are really grateful to all organisations that have contributed to making the trainings and testing possible.” 

A week ago, Veriff launched a project to donate 1 million free verification to support nonprofits and foundations amidst the unique challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Face to face interaction is currently limited to an absolute minimum, yet identity verification is more important than ever before. 

Potential beneficiaries of free verifications range from universities who need to verify people taking exams to marketplaces that have volunteers who help people in need and to registries that could tackle fake accounts and set up reliable databases about people in quarantine. But also, digital health care service providers, organisations fighting fake news and beyond.  

The 1 million free verifications program for nonprofits and foundations runs until the end of June. Read more about the project here: https://www.veriff.com/news/veriff-donates-1-million-verifications


Veriff’s 1 million free verifications program has successfully been kicked off. The first organisation to start using Veriff’s free verifications is the Estonian Youth Work Centre (EYWC). It’s a national centre that coordinates and develops youth work in Estonia.

Veriff’s 1 million free verifications program has successfully been kicked off. The first organisation to start using Veriff’s free verifications is the Estonian Youth Work Centre (EYWC). It’s a national centre that coordinates and develops youth work in Estonia in cooperation with governmental and youth work agencies, local governments, youth associations and other institutions. 

Estonian Youth Work Centre benefit from free verifications

Veriff’s information security team aims to highlight these tactics and offer cyber hygiene practices on how to avoid becoming the next victim of COVID-19-related scams. Here’s what you need to watch for. 

Phishing scams are dangerous because, especially times like this, you are made to believe that the message is sent from someone you trust. Normally these messages ask you to send your login details or payment for a service. Noteworthy examples of this are the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) whose identities have been misused in phishing campaigns. WHO has issued a warning for users to be aware of such fraudulent activity on their webpage, titled “Beware of criminals pretending to be WHO.” 

There are a handful of cyber hygiene practices that can help you avoid phishing scams, such as:

Verify the sender - check the email address to see if it’s a trusted source. There’s no harm in double checking with the source directly to see if you should have received an email from them.

Avoid clicking links or attachments - links or attachments in unsolicited emails should not be trusted. They could direct you to malicious webpages and/or cause you to download malware.

Reconsider providing your personal information - customarily companies and other organizations never ask for your personal details (username, password, banking information, etc.) in an email. You should not feel compelled to disclose your personal details in this manner.

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