This will give you a sense of whether a new provider can handle your volume of checks and the breadth of fraud risks you face.
Biometric Authentication Buyer’s Guide
Discover how biometrics can revolutionize how your business interacts with customers
Contents
Discover all you need to know about biometrics and why they could transform the way your business interacts with customers.
Introduction
by Geo Jolly, Lead Product Manager, Veriff
1
Navigating a complex market
2
Zoning in on your specific needs
3
Exploring providers’ credentials
4
Digging deep into the specifics
5
The Veriff difference
6
Introduction
Geo Jolly
Lead Product Manager, Veriff
You’ll know from reading our Biometric Authentication Intelligence Report that biometric authentication provide the safest and most accurate customer verification required for any business operating online and with remote customers today. But how do you find the perfect biometric authentication provider for your company, one that will be able to meet your evolving needs of tomorrow as well as your immediate needs of today?
In a complex and rapidly changing marketplace, it is important to select the right solution for you. The right platform can help you build trust with customers, while also helping prevent fraud and meet demands around evolving anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) requirements.
In this guide, we will help you understand how to evaluate your specific biometric authentication needs and grasp the nuances between biometric authentication providers. We will demonstrate the power of biometric authentication, showing how it combines the highest levels of security with a seamless user experience.
Navigating a complex market
Why biometric authentication matters
At the most basic level, any biometric authentication solution intends to ensure customers are who they say they are – and can play a crucial role in preventing fraud, ensuring compliance with regulations, and supporting AML efforts.
These concerns will of course differ depending on the size of your company and the industry you work in, but the right biometric authentication solution will help you optimize your service for your customer base, with all that means for customer satisfaction and the future growth of your company.
According to Veriff’s Identity Fraud Report 2024, global fraud has increased by more than 20% year on year. But while global fraud is on the rise, the risk changes across different industries and categories.
In financial services, for example, there was growth in fraudulent transactions across the board, but some industries were hit worse than others. Payments saw a massive 54% increase in fraudulent activity, while e-commerce saw a 40% increase.
That’s why selecting a provider that meets your specific needs is vital. At Veriff, we empower the onboarding and verification process with our Biometric Authentication product, explains Geo Jolly, Lead Product Manager:
“This ensures customer trust, boosts security and offers a seamless user experience, laying the foundations for future success.”
Frictionless fraud prevention
Picking the right biometric authentication provider is complex, with different companies offering different things.
There are many different types of biometric authentication providers, offering different levels of service from their solutions at wildly varying costs.
The key before choosing is to first establish what’s important for your company, then ask if each biometric authentication provider truly meets those aims.
The right platform will provide your company with a smooth verification flow, gathering data for analysis during verification sessions in a way that is easy and unobtrusive for customers.
It will offer the best verification engine, analyzing the data that the customers provide. And it will provide a platform that lets you view and manage verifications as they occur. Such offerings are good for business – and good for your brand.
At Veriff, we believe that biometric technology can deliver these advantages.
Biometric advantage
Biometric authentication-based authentication tools are based on a person’s physical characteristics. This means they are naturally unique to an individual.
At Veriff, for instance, we use facial biometric analysis to instantly and securely authenticate previously verified users. This is by far the strongest option because it uses AI-powered algorithms to analyze the user’s facial biometric authentication from a simple selfie and match it to a previously verified biometric template or previously used government-issued identity document to check if it is the same person.
Biometric authentication as an authentication method is far more secure than options like passwords because they are much more difficult to steal. They’re also more secure than device-based tokens, which assume that a genuine person has their device with them, or one-time passcodes, which assume that the passcode has reached the intended recipient without being intercepted or diverted.
Security:
Biometric authentication are more accurate because there is a higher ability to confirm the human presence and to confirm that the human is the right person in their selfie - something that is not possible when only requiring users to type in a password or shared code.
Accuracy:
Veriff’s Biometric Authentication tool creates a seamless customer journey because they don’t need to remember cumbersome passwords or other login details when it comes to accessing an account.
User experience:
Customers never need to remember their login information, so there’s no need to waste resources on resetting passwords on accounts or assisting customers through account verification or re-verification.
Save time and money:
Criminals can exploit the digital economy in various ways. Our partnership with TPC was designed to thwart crooks in the secondary market for upscale bicycles in the US, with biometrics playing a crucial role.
We’ve progressed from asking sellers to upload ID documents multiple times, to executing the verification process right the first time, every time, thanks to Veriff's Biometric Authentication.
"
David Cogdill,
Director of Reactive Purchasing at TPC
TPC is the world’s largest and most trusted brand for buying and selling certified pre-owned bikes. However, with pre-loved bikes regularly selling for more than $9,000 on the platform, it’s vital that TPC and its customers know that each and every transaction is bona fide and fraud free.
Previously, the company’s anti-fraud processes were 100% manual. They were slow, prone to human error, and increasingly unfit for purpose. A major challenge was verifying the authenticity of customer ID documents, for instance.
TPC’s partnership with Veriff has tackled these challenges head-on. Importantly, it has effectively reduced identity fraud by ensuring that ID documents submitted by sellers are authentic. Biometric Authentication plays a crucial role, ensuring users are who they say they are on return visits.
Click here to talk to one of our biometrics experts today.
Zoning in on your specific needs
Ask yourself the following questions to identify exactly what you need from a verification partner:
Over half of all fraud we are seeing at present is identity fraud. This includes impersonation and document fraud. That means you need a biometric authentication partner who is able to identify this type of fraud and equip you to prevent it.
At Veriff, we have been seeing deepfakes in our traffic for some years now. And, with the recent boom in generative AI, we expect to see more and more instances of images being generated using AI. With this type of complex fraud increasing, we are also conscious of the need to continually improve our own systems. For example, we assess images’ liveness to make sure they are genuine – and leverage other technical data points from the session to capture and assess any apparent anomalies.
We also deploy a combination of techniques to combat fraud in general, including deepfakes.
This checks the authenticity of the ID itself, looking for inconsistencies or signs of tampering.
Veriff analyzes key data points to search for potential fraud. This includes the approximate location and duration of a session.
This technology verifies that a real person is presenting the ID, rather than a picture or video.
Our solution can analyze data to determine if the user, their device, or their network has been linked to any other fraud attempts.
We can determine if a selfie is real or is a deepfake or synthetically generated. Our automated technology is designed to detect signs of face swaps, lip-syncing and other common types of deepfake.
We use machine learning to detect patterns or anomalies that indicate fraud, including those created with deepfakes. This could involve detecting inconsistencies in facial features, skin texture, or lighting conditions.
Biometric analysis:
Advanced AI:
Document verification:
Session behavior:
Liveness detection:
Fraud signals:
With Veriff’s Biometric Authentication solution customers can reduce the risks of account takeover in a fully automated solution. Response time takes less than a second, empowering customers to combine security with convenience and to build their business logic and policies on explainable authentication decisions.
This will help you understand the value of investing in the right provider – and potential cost savings.
The type of solution needed can vary widely from organization to organization. This will depend on a range of factors, including the sector you operate in, the type of transactions you conduct and the volume of customers you have.
So finding a partner that can tailor a solution to your specific needs is important. In this fast-changing world, where fraud trends and risks are evolving rapidly, it is important to find a partner that can flex their offering in response to changing trends and patterns.
So finding a partner that can tailor a solution to your specific needs is important. In this fast-changing world, where fraud trends and risks are evolving rapidly, it is important to find a partner that can flex their offering in response to changing trends and patterns.
Again, we deploy a combination of techniques:
Liveness detection: This technology verifies that a real person is presenting the ID, rather than a picture or video.
Advanced AI: We use machine learning to detect patterns or anomalies that indicate fraud, including those created with deepfakes. This could involve detecting inconsistencies in facial features, skin texture, or lighting conditions.
Liveness detection: This technology verifies that a real person is presenting the ID, rather than a picture or video.
Advanced AI: We use machine learning to detect patterns or anomalies that indicate fraud, including those created with deepfakes. This could involve detecting inconsistencies in facial features, skin texture, or lighting conditions.
We check for velocity abuse to ensure that no end-user abuses a service via multi-accounting. Information is checked through crosslinks and we can automatically
discard users if they, their document, or their device has been approved before.
discard users if they, their document, or their device has been approved before.
The key elements to stopping repeat offenders are device and network fingerprinting and crosslinking. Crosslinking allows us to group together sessions that share similar data points and analyze them together instead of viewing them as standalone attempts. For example, sessions submitted by the same person, on the same network, with the same device and/or using the same document.
We also use both manual and machine learning driven processes to continuously monitor incoming traffic for anomalies. This way we can identify clusters of traffic that are indicative of identity farming or other organized fraud attempts.
But most importantly, we at Veriff understand that fraud by nature is never static, and neither can the techniques and innovation that goes toward detecting it. This prompts us to do continuous research on emerging fraud trends working along with our internal teams as well as our customers to track, identify, and stop various fraud patterns.
We also use both manual and machine learning driven processes to continuously monitor incoming traffic for anomalies. This way we can identify clusters of traffic that are indicative of identity farming or other organized fraud attempts.
But most importantly, we at Veriff understand that fraud by nature is never static, and neither can the techniques and innovation that goes toward detecting it. This prompts us to do continuous research on emerging fraud trends working along with our internal teams as well as our customers to track, identify, and stop various fraud patterns.
Once your customer has created their account, you can secure it with the help of our Biometric Authentication solution.
This solution uses powerful automation to verify customers and ensures your business is no longer reliant on passwords and one-time passcodes, which can be intercepted by fraudsters.
Instead, it confirms that a returning user is exactly who they’re claiming to be with the use of a selfie, which is compared to a previously verified face stored as a biometric template. It is checked for liveness and realness.
The solution provides an authentication decision in only one second, is 99.99% accurate, and authenticates 99% of users on their first try.
By replacing passwords with biometric authentication processes, you can stop hackers from stealing customer information and taking over the accounts of unwitting users.
This solution uses powerful automation to verify customers and ensures your business is no longer reliant on passwords and one-time passcodes, which can be intercepted by fraudsters.
Instead, it confirms that a returning user is exactly who they’re claiming to be with the use of a selfie, which is compared to a previously verified face stored as a biometric template. It is checked for liveness and realness.
The solution provides an authentication decision in only one second, is 99.99% accurate, and authenticates 99% of users on their first try.
By replacing passwords with biometric authentication processes, you can stop hackers from stealing customer information and taking over the accounts of unwitting users.
Ask yourself the following questions to identify exactly what you need from a verification partner:
Discover how one game-changing online marketplace is tackling fraud without hampering the user experience:
Exploring providers’ credentials
It’s vital to understand the technology that underpins your provider’s biometric authentication offering. At Veriff, for instance, our Biometric Authentication solution is fully automated, using AI-powered algorithms to analyze the user’s facial biometric authentication from a simple selfie and match it to a previously verified biometric template to check if it is the same person.
With biometric facial authentication, you mitigate the risk of fraudsters taking over accounts. Continuous authentication helps you tackle suspicious activities and secure high-risk activities. The user simply takes a selfie, making the approach more convenient and secure than knowledge-based authentication methods like passwords, PINs, or shared secrets.
With biometric facial authentication, you mitigate the risk of fraudsters taking over accounts. Continuous authentication helps you tackle suspicious activities and secure high-risk activities. The user simply takes a selfie, making the approach more convenient and secure than knowledge-based authentication methods like passwords, PINs, or shared secrets.
It’s vital that your biometric authentication provider empowers you to make decisions as quickly as possible when it comes to verifying the identity of a potential customer.
Slow decision-making can lead to potential customers dropping out of the onboarding process and taking their business elsewhere, or cause returning users to abandon their accounts and move to a competitor. Of course, it’s also important to combine speed with accuracy and security.
Slow decision-making can lead to potential customers dropping out of the onboarding process and taking their business elsewhere, or cause returning users to abandon their accounts and move to a competitor. Of course, it’s also important to combine speed with accuracy and security.
If honest users can’t access your systems because they’re the victim of a false positive – that’s bad for the UX and bad for your business.
It’s vital that your provider combines the highest level of security with the best usability to make the process as seamless as possible.
It’s vital that your provider combines the highest level of security with the best usability to make the process as seamless as possible.
Different biometric authentication providers rely on differing levels of automated technology to deliver their services. The use of the best AI technology can dramatically boost the speed of your service, ensuring customers are verified quickly, painlessly and securely. Our platform, for instance, uses AI to ensure a 98% check automation rate, which gets customers through the system in about 6 seconds.
Depending on your industry, it will be vital to support customer ID and other documents across a range of categories, from social security numbers (SSNs) to driving licences and passports.
For instance, Veriff covers more than 11,500 different types of government-issued IDs across over 240 issuing nations and territories. This is important if your business plans to expand into new territories: going into new markets requires being able to process new identification documents.
For instance, Veriff covers more than 11,500 different types of government-issued IDs across over 240 issuing nations and territories. This is important if your business plans to expand into new territories: going into new markets requires being able to process new identification documents.
Each sector, from gaming to finance, will have its own regulations and requirements for onboarding customers and identity verification. Similarly, rules will change across geographies; fast-growing markets in Asia and Africa, for instance, will have different demands and expectations than their counterparts in Europe and North America.
Regulations are applied to regulated industries at a jurisdiction level. These change or evolve regularly and businesses who operate in more than one jurisdiction need to be aware and ensure they remain compliant. Be sure you pick a provider with the broadest possible reach and expertise in these regions.
Regulations are applied to regulated industries at a jurisdiction level. These change or evolve regularly and businesses who operate in more than one jurisdiction need to be aware and ensure they remain compliant. Be sure you pick a provider with the broadest possible reach and expertise in these regions.
As your business grows, it will be vital to verify customers in different countries with many different languages. A common mistake is offering too few language options, which means users can’t engage with the biometric authentication process, even if they want to. This has been a key focus for Veriff’s biometric authentication tools, which now cover more than 48 languages and dialects.
Because the fraud landscape is ever-changing there is no one way to ensure complete fraud prevention. The best you can do is adopt a holistic approach. Being robust in your fraud mitigation will offer your business the best form of protection, while at the same time making your customers feel safe and secure.
It is essential that providers implement the most complete fraud prevention solutions, such as AI-powered solutions like Veriff's, which offer a blend of convenience and security.
It is essential that providers implement the most complete fraud prevention solutions, such as AI-powered solutions like Veriff's, which offer a blend of convenience and security.
Partnering with a biometric authentication provider is going to come with a financial cost, but it is important to measure that cost against the benefits it will bring. There are various points to consider here: how the right biometric authentication solution could save you from the financial and reputational losses if your business was the victim of fraud, how that biometric authentication solution can ensure you are compliant with regulations and can protect you from being fined for non-compliance, and how the cost of an biometric authentication partner compares in cost to hiring, training, and maintaining an in-house team and the tools they need.
However, the main factor to consider is how the right biometric authentication solution can ensure you onboard more genuine customers more quickly - meaning the cost of the biometric authentication solution can be offset against the business growth achieved by acquiring more customers.
However, the main factor to consider is how the right biometric authentication solution can ensure you onboard more genuine customers more quickly - meaning the cost of the biometric authentication solution can be offset against the business growth achieved by acquiring more customers.
Ask the following questions of potential partners – to confirm their capabilities and credentials meet your needs.
Use our ROI calculator to learn how Veriff’s customizable customer identity verification solutions can save your business money and drive growth.
Biometrics in action for Crown Agents Bank
Digging deep into the specifics
Age verification is a vital tool for businesses in any sector that requires users to comply with legal requirements (for example, marketplaces selling age-restricted goods or gaming sites that have an age requirement).
While ensuring security and compliance are paramount in the biometric authentication process, you know your business depends on your customers to truly thrive.
It’s essential to manage user access and ensure the safety of your business, all without hurting customer retention.
Tools like Biometric Authentication and an easy-to-use menu and process – for example, through built-in fraud detection and automated user enrolment – optimize the process for customers while at the same time keeping your organization safe and secure. Ask prospective providers what they offer in areas like automated document detection, automated country detection and live guidance to ensure you continue to offer your customers the best of both worlds.
It’s essential to manage user access and ensure the safety of your business, all without hurting customer retention.
Tools like Biometric Authentication and an easy-to-use menu and process – for example, through built-in fraud detection and automated user enrolment – optimize the process for customers while at the same time keeping your organization safe and secure. Ask prospective providers what they offer in areas like automated document detection, automated country detection and live guidance to ensure you continue to offer your customers the best of both worlds.
The vast majority of growing businesses today will work across different countries and regions with varying language demands, including Latin character, Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese and beyond.
Biometric tools should be available in the most common operating systems – such as Android and iOS SDK – as well as in web verification flows.
Biometric tools should be available in the most common operating systems – such as Android and iOS SDK – as well as in web verification flows.
It’s vital that you work with companies that not only claim to work to the highest levels, but have the certifications to prove it – such as ISO 27001, the internationally recognized security standard from the International Organization for Standardization.
Knowing how quickly you can get your new systems up and running is a crucial part of the picture. The speed with which you can do so will depend largely on your business’s individual circumstances, but Veriff has an average implementation time of 4-6 weeks. However, some implementations have been completed in less than 48 hours.
Biometric authentication tools must process customer data. It’s important to know just how they work, and how they keep you safe.
For example, Veriff’s biometric authentication tool means we can process information about a person’s face. Depending on why our customers use our services, they may need to follow heightened legal requirements. We actively monitor global data privacy laws to stay updated on the latest developments and ensure our compliance with applicable laws. We are also supervised by local data protection authorities, a major focus today due to the need to comply with data privacy laws.
Veriff undertakes a range of other stringent efforts to ensure our customers’ privacy.
Keep scrolling for more information.
For example, Veriff’s biometric authentication tool means we can process information about a person’s face. Depending on why our customers use our services, they may need to follow heightened legal requirements. We actively monitor global data privacy laws to stay updated on the latest developments and ensure our compliance with applicable laws. We are also supervised by local data protection authorities, a major focus today due to the need to comply with data privacy laws.
Veriff undertakes a range of other stringent efforts to ensure our customers’ privacy.
Keep scrolling for more information.
It’s vital that companies maintain their biometric technology to the highest standards. As the biometric authentication Institute notes, “testing and evaluation of biometric technology is not speed dating – it is a long-term relationship”.
This must cover the entire lifecycle and adapt to the changing threat environment, including the rise of deepfakes.
Veriff conducts rigorous through-life testing of our services. We also uphold SOC 2 Type 2 compliance certification, which confirms that our systems are designed to keep our customers’ data secure. This is vital when working with an biometric authentication company, because data breaches could have serious and even life-altering consequences.
This must cover the entire lifecycle and adapt to the changing threat environment, including the rise of deepfakes.
Veriff conducts rigorous through-life testing of our services. We also uphold SOC 2 Type 2 compliance certification, which confirms that our systems are designed to keep our customers’ data secure. This is vital when working with an biometric authentication company, because data breaches could have serious and even life-altering consequences.
Use these questions to probe further into your potential provider’s more granular capabilities:
Veriff undertakes a range of other stringent efforts to ensure our customers’ privacy:
Our privacy and compliance team works with our data protection officer to conduct data protection impact assessments. These not only fulfill legal requirements but allow us to proactively identify and address the risks related to our products and services.
The term for holding data is fixed in customer agreements and internal policies. It is never kept indefinitely. As a standard, personal data – including biometric data – processed on behalf of our customers is stored for a maximum of three years, though this may change depending on customer instructions and internal policies.
Employees and service providers (such as essential data storage services) are only granted the information and access rights they need for specific tasks.
Data in transit is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or a newer version, while data at rest is encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard AES-256.
Risk assessments and a dedicated team:
Fixed data storage periods:
No selling or unauthorized sharing of end user data:
Encryption at rest and in-transit:
Click here to talk to one of
our biometrics experts today.
The Veriff difference
Multi-attribute AI solution
Our multi-attribute AI solution builds resilience by leveraging multiple signals for decision-making. This includes:
Our solution can analyze data to determine if the user, their device, or their network has been linked to any other fraud attempts.
Veriff analyzes key data points to search for potential fraud. This includes the approximate location and duration of a session.
We can determine if a selfie is real or is a deepfake or synthetically generated. Our automated technology is designed to detect signs of face swaps, lip-syncing and other common types of deepfake.
Fraud signals:
Session behavior:
Biometric analysis:
Key benefits of Biometric Authentication
A response time of less than a second enables your previously verified users to quickly and easily authenticate themselves by taking a simple selfie rather than having the burden of remembering and managing complex passwords.
Users can combine our biometric authentication with our IDV solution to provide extra protection. This can be achieved by creating a biometric template verified with the user’s identity document.
Our biometric authentication solution comes with built-in liveness detection and anti-spoofing capabilities to mitigate unauthorized access or account takeover. This enables secure account recovery or step-up authentication for high-risk activities so that users are required to take a selfie to confirm they are genuine users.
Veriff sends you a clear and actionable result, enabling you to make an informed final decision to allow, deny, or request additional verification from your users.
Users are not required to perform unnecessary actions or provide additional information. Instead, Veriff uses multiple data points from a single user interaction and historical interactions to make more accurate, context-based decisions. Users do not need to leave the journey to receive a one-time passcode or use an authentication app.
Our AI models continuously adapt to evolving fraud patterns, providing proactive protection against emerging threats. A combination of liveness detection, face blocklisting, device fingerprinting, and dynamic fraud checks form a robust and layered security approach without impacting the user experience.
Streamlined user experience:
Seamless identity assurance:
Secure authentication:
Explainable decision-making:
User-centered authentication:
Adaptive technology:
With Veriff’s Biometric Authentication solution customers can reduce the risks of account takeover in a fully automated solution. Response time takes less than a second, empowering customers to combine security with convenience and to build their business logic and policies on explainable authentication decisions.
About Veriff
Veriff is the preferred identity verification platform partner for the world’s most innovative growth-driven organizations, including pioneers in financial services, fintech, crypto, dating, gaming, mobility, and online marketplaces.
We provide advanced technology that combines AI-powered automation with reinforced learning from human feedback, deep insights, and expertise. We are leading the digital identity revolution by delivering a proven infrastructure that enables our customers to have trust in the identities and personal attributes of their users across all the moments that matter in the customer journey.
Our biometrics experts are ready to help build you a solution that gets more genuine customers onboarded faster, and more securely, than ever before.
