Identity proofing
Also called identity verification, ID verification, remote identity proofing
Confirming a person is who they claim to be before giving them an account or access, usually by matching a face to an ID document.
Every account starts with a question: is this person who they say they are? Identity proofing is how an organisation answers it. In person, that might be someone looking at your passport. Remotely, it is usually a photo of a document, a selfie or short video, and a comparison between the two.
Remote proofing rests on the idea that a face on camera is hard to fake. Generative AI has weakened that. A forged face can be made to match a stolen document and can be fed into the check without a camera.
So strong proofing no longer relies on the picture alone. It adds evidence that travels another way: a code sent to a phone number already tied to the person, or a notice to the real person's known address so they can object if it wasn't them.
For example
Before your first day at a remote job, you photograph your passport and record a short selfie video so the employer can confirm it's you.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet identity proofing in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
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