ID.me

ID.me is an American online identity network that allows people to prove their legal identity online. Their users can use that digital credential to access government services, healthcare logins, or discounts from retail brands. 

Based in McLean, Virginia, ID.me has over 35 million users as of February 2021.

The company is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Services

ID.me offers numerous identity verification products that companies and government agencies can use. Identity verification for group discounts appears to consist of a quick check with publicly available databases.

For "high-assurance" identity verification, the company verifies personal and financial data, including drivers' licenses, passports, and social security numbers. Users must also take a video selfie with their phones, using the ID.me photo app.  Users may also need to unlock their credit reports. 

If ID.me fails to verify users through this information, users are directed to talk to a "Trusted Referee" video call. At times, ID.me has suffered from long delays on its video call line.[32] If there are problems, users are directed to contact the company via an online form. The company's Better Business Bureau page is also being used by consumers to address issues with ID.me verification.

Privacy and security

As part of its identification system, the company collects a range of personal information, including photographs and identification documents. The company verifies information by sending it to a number of "government agencies, telecommunications networks, financial institutions" and other companies which the company trusts and considers reliable. The company treats Internet Protocol addresses and unique device identifiers as non-personally identifiable, and releases them to third parties, along with location, occupation, language, the list of pages browsed at ID.me, and the URLs visited before and after using ID.me.

ID.me is one of three companies, along with USAA and Zentry, certified by the federal government to Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Level of Assurance 3. ID.me's privacy policy states that users must give consent before any information is shared with third-party sources.