Chipa-based ID Card Verification: Do You Really Need It? This Will Help You Decide!

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Meta Description: The application of NFC technology has finally reached the world of identity verification, making business processes more efficient, secure, and convenient.

In today’s tech-oriented world, most smartphones are NFC-enabled by default. In fact, your smartphone is probably activated for NFC right now. But there’s no need to worry — NFC technology utilizes negligible power and battery on top of offering a wide array of benefits to enhance data security.

Although generally it is used to enable data exchange between two compatible electronic devices, NFC provides numerous other applications that can make your life more convenient. An example of this includes identity verification as used by banks, fintechs, and various other business sectors. Read on to find out what NFC identity verification is and why it’s gaining popularity.

What is NFC?

Near Field Communication, abbreviated as NFC, allows two electronic devices to transmit information simply through a tap. Even though it sounds like the latest innovation, it is more evolutionary than revolutionary. Much like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and particularly RFID (Radio-frequency Identification), NFC is another form of wireless communication.

The competitive edge this technology has over its counterparts is its ability to offer enhanced security, particularly in the digital payments and identity verification market. This is because NFC usage requires two devices to come into close proximity for data to be sent from one device to another.

As information can only be exchanged through a tap between two devices, it decreases the odds of unauthorized access to sensitive data and accidental data sharing.

Types of NFC

NFC devices come in one of three modes. These are:

NFC Card Emulation

This feature allows smartphones to act as “smart cards” that allow users to carry out transactions.

NFC Reader

This feature allows NFC-enabled devices to extract data from tags that may be embedded in banners, smart posters, or labels.

NFC Peer-to-Peer

Being the most popular mode of NFC, it allows two devices to interact with each other through a simple tap. In this way, large files such as albums, e-books, playlists, and videos can be shared within seconds.

Chip-based ID Card Verification

The security level of advanced authentication procedures is playing a more important role today than ever before. Due to the ever-evolving nature of most technologies today, criminals have been using them for illegal gains and are utilizing sophisticated strategies to fool security systems. NFC identity verification is one solution that can be used to avoid fraudsters attempting to bypass identity verification checks.

Here’s how it works:

The end-user provides their official ID documents and taps them on an NFC reader
An NFC identity verification solution extracts information embedded in a microchip present in ID cards, debit/credit cards, and passports, to obtain Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of the document holder
If the ID document provided is legitimate and matches the details provided by the end-user, verification is completed within a few seconds

This process of identity verification is not only convenient and quicker than traditional methods, but it also increases the rate of customer acquisition for business as robust security systems are indicative of the company’s awareness about data security.

Moving One Step Ahead – NFC Biometric Verification

If you had to choose between two banks that offered different levels of security, which one would you opt for? Probably the one that offers safer services. To add an extra layer of security, banks and other financial institutions can enable NFC-based biometric verification to weed out criminals before they carry out illegal activities.

Biometric technology is considered a highly credible method of ensuring identity verification and authentication. It involves mathematical analysis of the user’s biological attributes to verify whether a person is actually who they claim to be. Physical characteristics that can be verified include, but are not limited to:

Facial features
Iris and retina patterns
Fingerprints
Hand, palm, and vein patterns
Behavioral characteristics
Voice and speech recognition
DNA samples

NFC biometric verification provides an all-in-one solution for identity verification. This procedure is particularly important for the financial services industry, as retail banks, insurance firms, brokerage companies, life assurance and pension organizations, stock markets, and fintechs face numerous threats every day.

Apart from the financial services industry, NFC biometric verification can also be used for numerous other purposes. With a simple tap and a facial or fingerprint scan, customers can make payments for their groceries, send images to a friend, monitor their fitness stats through wearables, expedite the process of verification at airport transits, and conveniently make safe payments online at gaming platforms and digital casinos.