Stripe Identity helps businesses verify customers' identities online by validating their government-issued ID documents and using biometric information. Stripe retains biometric data for one year and non-biometric data for three years, with options for users to opt-out or request deletion of their data.
Stripe builds technology that’s used by millions of companies around the world like Amazon, Google, and Zoom. We help with everything from accepting payments to managing subscriptions and verifying identities. Every year, we handle hundreds of billions of dollars of payments.
Stripe Identity helps businesses verify your identity by validating your government ID document and using biometric information to verify that the ID document belongs to you. Below are resources to help you better understand how you can manage the data captured in that process and how your data is kept safe.
FAQs
- Why am I asked to verify my identity?
- How does Stripe verify my identity?
- Consent to use your information
Additional resources
- Best practices for successful verifications
- How can I delete my submitted identity data?
- How are you keeping my verification data safe?
- Who has access to the verification data captured?
- What information are you collecting?
- What is Stripe doing with my data and is Stripe acting as a data processor or controller?
- What is Stripe's retention period for biometrics?
- Does Stripe comply with Japan's Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds?
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.
As more businesses move online and no longer interact with customers face-to-face, Stripe Identity helps these businesses confirm that you are who you claim to be.
How does Stripe verify my identity?
There are multiple ways businesses can choose to confirm your identity through Stripe, including:
- Verify the authenticity of your ID document: Stripe will typically review images of your government-issued photo ID to ensure that the document is authentic. We’ve built 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.
- Match your ID with photos of your face: Stripe will review photos of your face that you provide to us to confirm that the photo ID belongs to you. We’ve 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 your appearance —but it’s higher-tech and a more accurate way to identify you as a unique person. Additionally, Stripe will attempt to match new selfies with past selfies to ensure each verification attempt corresponds to a valid identity.
- Validate your ID number against global databases: Stripe will collect your name, date of birth, and government ID number, like the last 4 of your SSN in the USA, and check this information against a global set of databases to confirm that it exists.
More about Stripe’s identity verification technology
Stripe’s identity verification technology uses computer vision to create 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 our biometric technology (which matches a selfie with a photo in the ID document) 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.
Consent to use your information
There are two different sets of permissions that we will ask of you for Stripe Identity.
1. Verify your identity
Stripe will capture images of you and your photo ID document to confirm your identity. Stripe will use the captured images to check that the ID document is valid, and to confirm that the ID document presented belongs to you. Stripe will have access to your verification status, captured images, and extracted data from images such as name, date of birth, and ID number, to the extent permissible by law. If a business uses Stripe to verify your identity, the business will also have access to the same information (e.g., your verification status, insights regarding why Stripe was or was not able to verify your identity, captured images, and the extracted data from those images). The business will not see the biometric identifiers used to confirm that your selfie matches the photo ID document, and those identifiers will be removed from our systems within one year. Stripe retains biometrics for one year to identify fraud over time and across photo IDs, but you can opt-out at any time by contacting privacy@stripe.com. With this retained data, we also cross check new selfies against past submissions. As for the non-biometric data that you submitted (e.g., photo and ID document), Stripe retains that data in the business’ Stripe Dashboard for 3 years and provides the business with the ability to delete it sooner. If you save your identity information to your Link account, Stripe will retain that information for longer. See the Link FAQ here for more information about your Link account: https://support.link.com.
If you are not comfortable sharing your information in this way, you can exit. If a business requested your verification, please get in touch with the business for an alternative way to confirm your identity.
2. Use your data to improve Stripe verification
Stripe will use the captured images to improve the accuracy of our biometric verification technology. This will help us reduce cases where we falsely reject legitimate users or approve fraudsters pretending to be someone else. If you give us permission, we will occasionally generate additional biometric identifiers for training purposes—which will be deleted within one year. You can withdraw your consent to Stripe’s use of your biometric information at any point by contacting us at privacy@stripe.com.
If you are not comfortable letting us use your data to improve our services, you can click to decline consent and we will only use your biometric information for the initial verification. You can learn more about how we handle and store your images and extracted data in our Privacy Policy.
More information about how to delete data submitted through Stripe Identity.
