How Do I Verify a Person?
Individual verification (KYC) validates a person’s identity through document capture, biometric matching, and sanctions screening. This guide walks through both the customer-facing experience and the admin view in Studio.What you’ll learn
- How a verification journey is initiated
- What the customer sees during verification
- How document capture and biometric matching work
- What screening runs in the background
- How results are delivered
The KYC flow at a glance
The customer experience
Customer receives a verification link
When your application initiates a verification journey, Zenoo generates a unique, time-limited URL. The customer receives this link via email, SMS, or embedded in your app.The link is valid for 24 hours. If it expires, a
journey.expired event fires and you can generate a new one.Welcome screen
The customer opens the link and sees a branded welcome screen with your logo, colors, and a brief explanation of what they need to do. This screen is fully customizable (see Brand Your Experience).The welcome screen lists:
- Which document types are accepted (passport, national ID, driving license)
- That a selfie will be required
- Estimated completion time
Document capture
The customer photographs their identity document using their device camera. The system guides them with:
- Frame overlay — shows where to position the document
- Quality checks — detects blur, glare, and cropping issues in real time
- Auto-capture — takes the photo automatically when the document is properly positioned
Selfie and liveness check
After document capture, the customer takes a selfie. The liveness check ensures the person is physically present:
- Active liveness — the customer follows prompts (turn head, blink) to prove they are not using a photo or video
- Passive liveness — advanced algorithms detect spoofing without user prompts
Processing screen
While checks run in the background, the customer sees a processing screen. This typically takes 10-30 seconds. The customer can close the browser — results will be delivered asynchronously.
What happens behind the scenes?
While the customer completes their journey, Studio runs checks in parallel:- Document Verification
- Biometric Matching
- Screening
- OCR extraction — extracts name, date of birth, document number, expiry date, nationality from the document image
- Authenticity checks — analyzes security features (holograms, microprint, UV patterns) to detect tampering
- Expiry validation — flags expired documents
- MRZ verification — validates the machine-readable zone against visual data
What does the admin see?
In the Studio dashboard, each completed journey shows:- Identity result — verified/not verified, with the document type and extracted data
- Biometric result — face match score, liveness result
- Document result — authenticity score, any tampering flags, expiry status
- Screening result — PEP/sanctions/adverse media hit status with match details
If any check produces a hit or failure, a case is automatically created in Case Management. Your compliance team will see it in their alert queue.
What generates alerts?
| Check Result | Alert Created? | Alert Type |
|---|---|---|
| Document expired | Yes | Document |
| Name mismatch (OCR vs. submitted) | Yes | Identity |
| Face match below threshold | Yes | Identity |
| Liveness check failed | Yes | Identity |
| PEP match found | Yes | Screening |
| Sanctions hit found | Yes | Screening |
| Adverse media found | Yes | Screening |
| All checks pass | No | — |
What’s next?
Screen for Sanctions
Deep dive into configuring screening databases and match thresholds.
Brand Your Experience
Customize the verification journey your customers see.
Review Alerts
Learn how your compliance team reviews alerts from verification results.
Build Your First Flow
Start from scratch with a step-by-step flow builder walkthrough.