In-person identity verification for venues

In-person identity verification means the person and the document are in the same capture. It is a different job from a database lookup done with no one present. For an event, the useful time to do it is when they sign up or buy the ticket, so they are pre-vetted before they arrive.

Protect Events puts the capture on the guest’s phone and the decision in the pipeline you manage. If your ticketing system should hear the same result, use the API. The age rule itself is covered in age verification for events.

Why the phone is the capture device

A passport photo page is small, reflective and easy to crop badly. A phone held by the person who owns the document is better at that than a webcam. The flow asks for even light, a face without sunglasses, then the document inside a frame, then one more photo with the document held beside the face. That last photo is there to show the document in the pictures is the one in their hand.

Your team is not asked to become photographers. You are asked to read a result, and to manage the review pipeline when a document is flagged.

What you see while they complete it

When a guest opens the link, the session moves off “waiting”. It shows face, then document, then reviewing. Approved and declined are the clear outcomes. Needs review means the automated checks found something your team should see, such as a layout that does not match a genuine document, or a pattern that looks like a photo of a screen. Those checks are described on the platform page.

The guest has 24 hours and three attempts. A blurry licence can be retried. An under-age result cannot. Expired documents fail. Unreadable ones fail with a reason.

Documents, without a scanner

United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States. Passport or driving licence. Licence front and back. No flatbed, no chip read, no call to DVLA or the passport office. The check is the document and the person in the camera. Detail on what gets read is in passport and driving licence checks.

How to pilot one event

Put the check on one signup or one ticket type you already understand. Use the trial if you want the first guests to be real. Watch where people hesitate. Usually it is light on the document, or a licence that is not to hand while they are paying.

When that flow is boring, add the next ticket type. Boring is the point. The check should feel like a step in the purchase, not a separate appointment on the day.

Your team still owns the policy

The record can say approved. The venue can still refuse entry. Intoxication, a ticket that does not match the name, a bag policy: none of that is an identity product. Protect Events is there so the age and the document are not the confusing part when people arrive.