Stripe Identity at the center of payments

Stripe Identity, as the new product is called, works through computer vision combined with machine learning to recognize an identity document and associate it with the person who wants to access or register on a site. The identification process in the basic version takes place like this: the user takes a photograph of his own identity document and uploads it to the system together with a selfie taken on the spot. The artificial intelligence behind the software links the two files and carries out its checks. Depending on customer requests, other data can also be included for more stringent checks. The information collected is encrypted and managed directly by Stripe, never by third parties, and the whole process takes no more than 15 seconds for authorization. Then there is the soft option (without authorization code) and the one that requires the generation of a verification password. This therefore allows all sites to integrate a secure, fast user identity verification system, without the need for proprietary software, and moreover entirely anonymous, given that the site that uses Stripe Identity is not aware of personal data. of the user (nor does he have to worry about privacy compliance on data processing and storage), but only knows whether the transaction is authorized or not. The service is available in beta from today in 30 countries, Stripe announced, but has already been tested with some partners like Discord, Peerspace and Shippo, which suggests uses outside of payment transactions. Stripe plans to reveal later this week at its developer conference. While payments remain the heart of Stripe, entering the world of identity verification leads the company to explore new branches of application. For example in social media, preventing account theft, identifying bots, blocking trolls, or, more importantly, providing a tool to verify the user’s age, without connection to payments. Precisely for this reason, the company has announced that it is not necessary to be a registered user with a Stripe account to be able to use Stripe Identity, an internal tool that therefore becomes a product in itself, in the wake of the recent acquisition of Tax Jar which led to the launch only last week. Stripe Tax, which provides merchants with an integrated tool for calculating transaction taxes. Also in the last few weeks, Stripe has continued its diversification process with new purchases in the carbon removal sector (managed by the Stripe Climate division) and the merger with Bouncer, to implement the control and authentication tools in an anti-fraud function within Stripe Radar, the Stripe tool that identifies and checks risky transactions.