Why am I asked to verify my identity?
When you interact with businesses in person, identity verification happens all the time. For example:
- When purchasing alcohol, a cashier may ask for a photo ID to check your age.
- When making a transaction at a bank, a teller may ask for an ID document to make sure that you’re the owner of the account.
- When checking into a hotel, a concierge may ask to make a photocopy of your passport for insurance purposes.
Sometimes we require you to verify your identity, this can be for a variety of reasons, but may include:
- Accessing sensitive or secure account information. (Like system usernames or passwords, Alarm codes, detailed account history)
- When placing certain orders. (Like resetting a system to factory defaults because you’ve lost the password/alarm code)
- Placing new orders
- Placing very value order
- Fraud reduction
- We are required to verify your ID as part of Government legislation
- A number of other reasons
How does identity verification work?
We work with
Stripe to conduct identity verification online. This makes verifying your identity a quick and easy process. Stripe builds technology that’s used by millions of companies around the world such as Amazon, Google, and Zoom. Stripe helps us confirm your identity by conducting the following checks:
- Stripe will capture images of the front and back of your government-issued photo ID and review it to ensure that the document is authentic. It has built an automated identity verification technology that looks for patterns to help determine if an ID document is real or fake. This process is like a bank teller checking your ID document to confirm that it’s real.
- Stripe will capture photos of your face and review to confirm that the photo ID belongs to you. It has built automated identity verification technology that uses distinctive physiological characteristics of your face (known as biometric identifiers) to match the photos of your face with the photo on the ID document. This process is similar to a bank teller confirming that the photo on your ID document is you based on the shape of your nose or eyes – but it’s higher-tech and a more accurate way to identify you as a unique person.
- Stripe will collect your name, date of birth, and government ID number, and validate that it is real.
Stripe will ask for your consent before collecting and using your information. It will only use your verification data in accordance with the
permissions you grant before starting the verification process and based on their
Privacy Policy.
Learn more about how Stripe is storing and handling your data.
Best practices for successful verification
Before starting the verification process, here’s what you need:
- A valid government-issued photo ID document. Not a photocopy or a picture of an ID document. Ensure that the ID document has not expired.
This could be - A Driving Licence
- A Passport
- A Government-issued photo ID card or Proof of Age Card
- A device with a camera, if possible, use a mobile device. Cameras on mobile devices typically take higher-quality photos than a webcam.
The quality of the images captured affects success rates dramatically. Below are a few best practices to help ensure that your verification succeeds:
- Capture a clear image. Make sure that the images are not too dark or bright, and don’t have a glare. Hold steady and allow your camera to focus to avoid blurry photos.
- Do not block any part of your ID document in the image. Ideally, you should lay it flat to take the photo.
- Do not block any part of your face. Remove sunglasses, masks, or other accessories.
- Find a location with ambient lighting. Avoid spaces with strong overhead lights that cast a shadow on your face or ID document. Avoid sitting directly in front of a bright light which can wash out your face and add a glare to your ID document.
Why was I rejected?
Identity verification can fail for many reasons such as:
• The image wasn’t clear
• Part of your ID document was blocked or not in the image
• Part of your face was blocked or not in the image
• There was too much glare or shadows cast on your document or face
• The ID was a photocopy
• The ID was not an acceptable type of government-issued photo ID document
In the case of verification failure or rejection, we will manually review the ID verification and conduct additional manual verification if required.
Can I get verified using a different method?
Yes, we respect your right to choose how your information is processed.
We can conduct Identity verification checks manually or in-person however please be aware this may cause delays in your order or request.
Who has access to my verification data?
We only store the necessary information required to verify your identity.
Your data is processed according to both our and stripes privacy policies.
You can access our Privacy Policy
hereYou can access Stripe’s Privacy Policy
here
Both Panorama Security Services PTY LTD and Stripe will have access to the information that you submit through the verification flow. We rely on Stripe to help store your verification data. Stripe uses stringent access controls and security standards.
Learn more about how Stripe handles and stores your data.
How can I access or delete my verification data?
You may request details of personal information that we hold about you. These details will be provided to you in accordance with our
Privacy Policy.
In certain circumstances set out in the Privacy Act, we may be unable to comply with your request as we are required to keep your data for a longer period of time to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations and for other legitimate business reasons. Instead In those circumstances, where we are able, we will make every effort to redact your data.
However, it’s important to note that if you request us to delete your data, it may prevent us from providing you with products and services in the future.
Is it secure?
Yes, Stripe use bank-level, best-in-class security tools and practices to maintain a high level of security. Stripe forces HTTPS for all services using
TLS (SSL), Stripe use
HSTS to ensure that browsers interact with Stripe only over HTTPS. Stripe is also on the HSTS preloaded lists for both
Google Chrome and
Mozilla Firefox.
Data is encrypted at rest with AES-256. Decryption keys are stored on separate machines. Stripe’s infrastructure for storing, decrypting, and transmitting data runs in a separate hosting environment and doesn’t share any credentials with Stripe’s primary services (API, website, etc.).
More about Stripe’s identity verification technology
Stripe’s identity verification technology uses
computer vision to create temporary
biometric identifiers of your face from the selfies and the picture on your photo ID—and compares the two. This mimics what a person does to verify that your face matches the face on your ID document in-person, like a cashier who reviews your driver's license to verify that it’s real, then checks that you look like the photo on the ID document.
We are constantly improving the accuracy of this technology to reduce cases where we falsely reject legitimate users or approve fraudsters pretending to be someone else. This is why we
ask for your permission to use your images for training purposes.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding identity verification, please don't hesitate to reach out to our team.