Identity Verification
Identity Verification.
The process of proving a person is who they claim to be in the real world — typically combining a government-issued ID, a selfie with liveness check, and verification against authoritative data sources.
IDV and KYC are often conflated — KYC is the regulated financial-services usage of IDV plus additional risk and watchlist checks. IDV is the technical capability; KYC is one of its applications. Remote IDV with strong liveness can meet IAL2; the 2024-2026 deepfake escalation has raised the liveness bar materially.
Common questions
What's the difference between IDV and KYC?
Is remote IDV as secure as in-person?
Which IDV vendors are typical for B2C onboarding?
Related terms
In the guides
HIPAA and CIAM: The Healthcare Identity Compliance Checklist for 2026
HIPAA's Security Rule constrains how CIAM handles healthcare identity. The technical safeguards, the auditor's checklist, and vendor-selection implications for 2026.
Identity Verification and Proofing (IDV/KYC): A CIAM Guide for 2026
How to prove a real person matches a claimed identity at signup — document capture, liveness, authoritative-data checks. The 2026 stack, the deepfake escalation, and where CIAM ends.