Self Verify FAQ – Stir

How Does Photo Verification Work?

Photo Verification consists of one simple step: taking a video selfie. You will receive “Photo Verified” status if the person in your video selfie passes both the Liveness Check and 3D Face Authentication step.

The Liveness Check scans the face in your video and helps us determine whether the video was taken by a real, live person, and that it was not digitally altered or manipulated. 3D Face Authentication detects your face in your video selfie and your profile photos, and extracts facial geometries using facial recognition technology to generate a unique number or facial geometry “template.” These templates are used to help check whether the person in your video selfie is the same person as in your profile photos.

Your facial geometry templates are deleted within 24 hours. Your video selfie is deleted and is not added to your profile, but we keep two screenshots from your video selfie for the purposes of auditing and managing this feature.

How do you use the Facial Geometry information?

We only use your facial geometry information for the purpose of Photo Verification. To perform the photo verification process, we share your facial geometry information and screenshots with Match Group, LLC., a Match Group company which operates this feature upon our instructions and on our behalf, as our service provider. They store and use your facial geometry information and screenshots on their Amazon Web Service (AWS) instances. This information and screenshots are deleted from their Amazon Web Services instances in the timeframes laid out below under “What will you keep after verification is complete?”. If you want to learn more about AWS's privacy practices, you can click here. We do not share your facial geometry information and screenshots with any other third parties.

What will you keep after verification is complete?

We will keep two screenshots from your video selfie during the life of your account to audit and manage our selfie verification feature. These screenshots are deleted upon account closure, in accordance with our Privacy Policy. We'll also keep the results of the Photo Verification process (i.e., verified or not). We do not keep the underlying facial geometry information or “template” beyond the Photo Verification process (which is usually complete within 24 hours). We do not keep your video selfie.

Under what legal authority do you process the Photo Verification information?

We process the Photo Verification information with your consent.

What is Stir’s Policy for the retention and destruction of biometric information?

Retention:

Biometric information — namely, facial geometries that allow us to conduct facial recognition on your video selfie and profile pictures for the purposes of completing Photo Verification — are only created and retained with your consent for the duration of the Photo Verification process. Photo Verification may take up to 24 hours. Once your Photo Verification is complete, the biometric information is deleted. We retain screenshots from the video selfie that you took for the purposes outlined above, but the facial geometry information pulled from your video is deleted.

Destruction:

When Stir deletes the biometric information following the completion of the Photo Verification processes, it is permanently purged from our systems and can no longer be retrieved.

How do I find more information about Stir’s data practices, including my privacy rights?

Visit our Privacy Policy to learn more about our privacy practices, including the Your Rights section.