Let your users Verify, and Reverify, and Reverify again.

Whether for strategic reverifications, account takeover, or streamlined upselling, reverification can be a really powerful. It all starts with Accounts. Accounts is a new feature that enables you to view the entire history of how you've interacted with an individual over time. By providing a reference ID, you can automatically link many different inquiries to the same individual. Now, it’s straightforward to compare information collected in an Inquiry against what's already known about that individual user. In summary, we are providing a holistic way to understand an individual. We are moving toward verifying "who an individual is" and away from "what we learned about an individual this time."

With Accounts, you have a log of interactions with an individual and a record of all the individuals who have signed up for your service. This unlocks three main use cases:

1. Reverification of an individual who is already using your service
2. Ability to run continuous reports over time
3. Safe PII and information storage

For now, we will deep dive into reverification. Check out our other posts to learn more about PII storage and reports.

How reverification works in Persona

Here’s the step-by-step: 

1. When an individual submits an inquiry for the first time, it creates a representation of that individual on Persona, otherwise known as an Account. 
2. If there is a reference ID with the Inquiry, Persona checks to see if that reference ID is already associated with an Account. If it is, we connect the two. If it isn't, a new Account is created with that individual’s reference ID. 
3. Every time that reference ID is surfaced in Persona, it will automatically associate with that Account, coupled with all the information that has already been collected.
4. Because we now have a record of all the information previously collected and stored on an Account, we can leverage this for future inquiries to verify someone with just a selfie, by creating a match against their Account.
5. For future inquiries, this allows you to request just the information you need. You can identify an individual by only requiring a selfie, or request new information without being duplicative.

Please note: there are 3 other ways to create Accounts, other than on the first Inquiry. You can also use an import to backfill Accounts, use the API, or manually add through the Dashboard.

If you’d like to learn more about these options, please check out our Help Center or our documentation.

Once you have populated Accounts, you should see a list of all the individuals who have accounts with your service on the Accounts tab on the left of the Dashboard. This list includes their name, their reference ID, and the most recent date of their interaction (in this view). Head to the Accounts tab in Dashboard to see a directory of all of the Accounts and find the ones you need by searching by name or reference ID. 

When you click into a specific Account, you’ll be able to see the PII for that individual that was submitted for their Account, as a complete profile. Below the profile is the record of all the Inquiries created by that individual, with the ability to search and filter to find exactly what you’re looking for.

The “Create Inquiry” button on the top right of the screen will create a new Inquiry specifically for that Account for reverification purposes. That will act as a one time link that will let you manually run an Inquiry against an Account.

Click “More” to edit an Account, redact an Account, or update a tag on that individual account.

To understand more about editing or redacting an Account, check out our Help Center. 

‍

Reverification is useful across many scenarios and use-cases

• Strategic reverifications: You can set up reverification for specific actions your users might take, ex. transferring a large amount of money from one account to another, or delivering a high priced item.
• Account takeover: You can set up reverification to ensure user accounts are not being hacked. Or, if you notice a user hasn't logged in for a while, you might want to have them reverify their identity. This protects both the user and the platform.
• Streamlined upselling: Collecting more information from existing users as you expand access to more areas of your product.

At a more specific level:

Reverification of drivers in the gig economy

The necessity for reverification is not new. For example, on November 25, 2019, Uber infamously lost its license to operate in London when Transport for London (TFL) found over 14,000 trips had been conducted with drivers who  faked their identities. Uber was not reverifying accounts, so individuals who created accounts could easily share them with other drivers to have them drive on their behalf. There was zero confirmation that the driver and account owner were the same person. Reverification could have protected Uber and its customers by giving drivers the ability to reverify themselves before driving, which would confirm that the person driving was the same person who signed up. Uber could have easily implemented this process by comparing the face of the driver with the original image collected. 

Reverification of drivers delivering high priced items in the gig economy

Let’s say you serve the gig economy. You may not want to reverify the courier for every order — just for high-price or important delivery items. Persona makes it easy for you to conditionally collect additional information so you can compare against the courier's information on file, for that extra peace of mind and added level of security. 

Reverification of renters in the housing market

‍For renters in the housing market, it might make sense to reverify the individual’s identity before actually accessing the property. If a renter has already been approved for an Account, they can send a selfie before entering a property to ensure they are the original person who signed up to tour the house. 

Reverification of individuals for loans

For fintech companies that already have a handful of accounts, you can use reverification as a way for individuals to receive and apply for loans, credit cards, new accounts, etc. without requiring too much information from them. 

Reverification for age-verification to correct for expired government id

For companies that sell age restricted goods like alcohol or cannabis, where it is important for a government ID to not be expired, or for identity verification for the purposes of driving a vehicle, it is important to reverify for the new, unexpired ID. 

Reverification makes onboarding more efficient 

With reverification, you do not need to ask individuals to go through your whole flow more than once, so you can reduce friction by reducing information needed to complete the Inquiry. Once the Account is populated, it could be as simple as just a selfie to reverify that individual against their Account, a highly efficient process. This also increases trust by confirming the Account is still the same individual that was originally verified, without compromising on your user’s experience. 

To get started using reverification, reach out to us at [email protected].