Face verification is a task in which you determine whether two facial images belong to the same unique individual. This task can be accomplished via machine learning for decisioning.
From smartphones to banking applications, using your face to “unlock” devices and apps has been around for a few decades now. Appreciated for its user convenience and high level of security, face verification continues to see widespread adoption across industries.
What is Face Verification?
Face verification, or facial verification, is the process of comparing a live image or scan of someone’s face with a stored reference image from a verified source. It’s a type of biometric authentication that uses a person’s intrinsic physical characteristics as a way of verifying their identity. It is also commonly referred to as facial authentication.
The goal of facial verification or authentication is to ensure that the person attempting access to a given device, application, or resource is the proper identity holder. In this way, it’s an important aspect of network security that helps to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and information.
How Does Face Verification Work?
Face verification relies on advanced algorithms and camera-equipped devices to capture an image of a person’s face, convert the photo into meaningful data, and compare it against the stored version to determine if there’s a match.
Facial verification is completed with the following steps:
- Capturing: The person attempting access is prompted to capture an image or video of their face, typically using the front-facing camera on their device. The verification system will preprocess the image to remove any interference and isolate the person’s face for accurate analysis.
- Extracting: The facial recognition system will assess the person’s features, like their jaw contour and eye distance, and extract corresponding data points to represent their unique features mathematically.
- Comparing: The data from the captured image is compared against the trusted image that is stored in the database, which was verified upon account setup using the person’s driver’s license, passport, or other identity document.
- Matching: The person’s identity will be authenticated if the system determines there’s a match with a high level of confidence. If the system cannot confidently determine a match, the person may be denied access or prompted to provide additional information.
Face Verification vs. Face Recognition
Both facial verification and facial recognition play an important role in identity management and are often used interchangeably. However, there are some key differences between the two that are worth mentioning, as they provide two distinct purposes.
Again, facial verification or authentication is a “one-to-one” comparison that is used during an access attempt to verify that a person’s face matches stored identity data.
On the other hand, facial recognition is a “one-to-many” match. It is used to recognize and identify an individual out of a crowd of faces. Rather than providing a facial scan and having it compared against one stored ‘trusted’ version, facial recognition is commonly used by law enforcement and surveillance systems to compare images of an unknown person’s face against a database of identities to determine who they are.
Benefits of Face Verification
There are several key advantages of facial verification technology, including:
1. Enhanced Security
Face authentication is a highly secure method for verifying user identities. Since each person’s unique combination of facial features is one-of-a-kind, it’s nearly impossible for bad actors to accurately spoof or recreate them to bypass the system.
Especially now that these systems leverage liveness detection to ensure that the identity holder is alive and present during the access attempt, it reduces the risk that fraudsters will use an image or video recording of the account holder to gain access.
2. Convenience
Rather than requiring individuals to remember a password or possess a physical security key to gain access to an application or resource, facial verification is a much more convenient authentication method.
Since this mechanism relies on something individuals intrinsically are, verifying user identities only requires a quick face scan, which makes for a pretty seamless experience. So, not only does face verification enhance security, but it’s also easy for people to use.
3. Cost Efficiency
With a frictionless and more convenient authentication experience, organizations can save money and improve productivity by devoting fewer resources to account recovery and password resets.
Plus, if organizations were previously relying on other methods of identity verification, like physical ID checks or card readers, implementing face authentication systems will often be more cost-effective.
Possible Challenges of Face Verification
While there are plenty of benefits to implementing face verification, both for organizations and individuals, there are some possible setbacks and concerns to be aware of:
Device Dependency
Face verification requires users to have a device capable of taking high-quality photos for the system to analyze. If users don’t have such a device, or it’s not in their possession when they want to access their accounts, it could lead to frustration.
User Privacy Concerns
Users may feel resistant to using face verification and be concerned about their data privacy. They may not feel comfortable providing sensitive biometric information for organizations to analyze and store without adequate transparency.
False Positives/Negatives
Facial verification is often used to enhance network security, though it is not entirely foolproof. Many systems can deliver over 99% accuracy; however, there is a possibility that false negatives or positives may occur.
Face Verification Use Cases
In both personal and business settings, facial verification has become a widely used technology to confirm that a person is who they claim to be. Here are some of the common use cases of face verification:
- Personal devices: Smartphones, laptops, and tablets may leverage face verification to protect the device from unauthorized access.
- Travel: Border control and TSA can use facial verification systems to ensure that the person presenting identity documents matches the stored version of the image.
- Workplace: Organizations can implement face verification to restrict access to specific devices, apps, networks, and premises to authorized individuals only.
- Financial services: Online investment or banking apps can use face verification to ensure that only the trusted account holder is able to log in, view account balances, and initiate transactions.