Identity checks – A Profitable Business Strategy or Another Business Expense?

Online commerce is a necessity of every business these days. With nearly every consumer carrying a smartphone the boundaries of consumer behaviour are getting blurred and identity checks are becoming more and more complicated. Businesses are now generating more sales online than in stores. With an expected increase in online sales reaching up to 4.8 trillion dollars by 2021, the market for e-commerce shows no signs of showing a decline.

The Increase of Internet Fraud in Online Buying

The gaining foothold of online business can be a good thing for accessibility, however, the concerns for security and privacy still remain a gaping loophole. With an increase in web activity comes the threat of online fraud and scams. With cybercrime responsible for depriving the world of nearly one per cent of its GDP, anti fraud solutions and fraud prevention services have become essential for an online business’s security.

The escalation in incidents of identity theft, credit card fraud and other similar kinds of internet fraud has therefore led to the necessity of identity verification measures by both businesses and governmental agencies. However, the process of such verification can be a long and tedious – at least through a manual procedure.

Businesses lose millions of dollars to cybercrimes. From plain old fashioned identity theft to credit card fraud and card skimming techniques, cybercriminals are getting smarter and bolder. This threat to the integrity of online retail has brought on the need to bring about fraud detection and prevention measures.

Identity Verification in the Digital Age

The need to verify the identity of online users digitally has always been a prudent one. This need was tangibly addressed for the first time when iPhone 5S was launched in 2013 with a biometric fingerprint scanner embedded in its home button. Since then smartphones have morphed into integrating multiple levels of ID verification checks, including facial ID verification and retinal scans.

Read: How Identity Verification Solutions Can Make Summer Travel a Breeze and Generate Revenue?

For businesses, this advancement has translated into the establishment of identity verification services that now provide an identity background check for customers within seconds. Shufti is such an online identity verification service provider that provides id verification software as a service (SaaS). It provides multiple layers of verification checks including document verification (IDs, passports, driving licenses etc.), face verification, background checks and AML compliance. All such checks are performed in under a minute, providing the end users with no inconvenience whatsoever.

The Necessity of Identity Checks for Businesses

Now identity checks can be a tedious procedure for businesses to adopt, at least if they opt to do it manually. However, the advent of high-end technology is simplifying procedures that once seemed long, tedious and complicated. Verifying checks are now made simpler through the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into such processes.

Many governments have also made the online verification of their citizens a necessary part of their operations and for businesses as well, including the government of UK. This points towards the prudence for businesses to utilise electronic identity verification procedures.

Moreover, if there is a way for businesses to verify their customers in a smooth manner and without going through the slow procedures of physical verification; validating a customer’s identity may be the best thing for businesses. It can end up reducing their losses due to online fraud.

Is Privacy a Concern in Identity Checks?

For those consumers concerned about the whole process of ID verification, to put it simply it is the answer to a simple question for businesses i.e. “are my customers who they say they are?”. Many of us are already familiar somewhat with the procedure of verifying identity. We present our passports at airports for identification, our proof of id when opening a bank account or acquiring a loan. However, in such cases authentication of your identity can take a while.    

In this comes the role of digital verification. The process of online identity verification is simple. With nearly every consumer carrying smartphones with impeccable cameras, users only have to scan a particular identification document with their camera’s that is then authenticated against the set standard of their government and check for any flaws or imitations. Face verifications are performed by scanning a person’s face in real-time through 3D depth analysis and liveness detection of the face.

Such verifying checks are never performed without a user’s consent. Moreover, such services are primarily built to protect users’ data and cannot share it with any third party. They do not have access to any government data and are legally liable to conform to the data protection laws put forth by every government.

All this concludes to the fact that identity checks have become a necessity for businesses whether online and physical (or both). In this regard, Shufti is providing top of the line services through an AI-based authentication system.

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