Identity Verification

Verification pursues three aims: to exclude any person who is a minor, to prevent account takeover and to combat fraud and trafficking. It conditions every sale; to buy, the declaration of majority made at sign-up is enough; the catalogue stays open to browse.

Before any sale, every seller verifies her identity, directly on the site, in a few minutes from a phone. After giving her consent (tick box), she uses her device's camera to photograph the front of her official identity document, the back if it is an identity card, then takes three selfies following randomly drawn poses (facing forward, head to the left, head to the right): this is what shows that a living person is present, not a photo.

Our server, without any provider, then reads the document's machine-readable zone (date of birth, expiry date, country, sex), compares the face on the document with the selfies using a face-recognition model — processing of biometric data — and looks for signs of a photo of a screen or a printout. The decision is made by a person at Weared, helped by these results. If this process is unavailable, verification may go through our provider Didit (Didit Protocol, Spain — EU): an official identity document and a short verification video, about one minute.

Buyers undergo no documentary check: each declares at sign-up that they are 18 or over, a timestamped declaration tied to their account; a buyer who pays by card also has their account verified by that first payment (through Stripe). A purchase without an account is paid by card or in bitcoin, with a declaration of majority; in bitcoin, it is always a guaranteed purchase, in which Weared is the seller.

The check serves two purposes: excluding any minor and ensuring that a real natural person stands behind each seller account.

A confirmed e-mail address and explicit consent to data processing are also required.

The photos of the document and the selfies are stored encrypted on our server in Switzerland, are never published or passed to a third party, and are kept for up to 1 year after the decision, then deleted (30 days after they were sent if no decision is made, immediately if you delete your account). Afterwards we keep only the result and its date, the date of birth, the expiry date and country of the document, the check scores and a fingerprint of the document number — never the number itself, nor your name.

Weared keeps a confidential register recording, for each member verified by identity document, the result of their identity verification, its date, their date of birth, the expiry date and country of the document, the check scores and a fingerprint of the document number used to spot one document being used for two accounts (for a Didit verification: the session reference). This register is segregated and accessible only to authorised persons. It is never visible to other members and serves only compliance and security purposes.

While your file is being reviewed, an authorised person at Weared sees your identity document — and therefore your name and photo — solely in order to decide; every access is logged. Your name is never recorded in your account, and the images are deleted at the latest 1 year after the decision. Other members never see your real identity — they know only your pseudonym. Anonymity between parties and the documentary check coexist without contradiction.

An unverified seller can prepare a listing, but it stays a draft, off the site: nothing is published or sold before verification. A buyer who has not declared they are of age can neither order nor message members. A falsified document or established minority leads to a ban of the account, and the refusal is retained to prevent the same profile from signing up again.

To prevent a person banned for fraud or for being a minor from coming back under another account, we then keep their face template (a series of numbers derived from the face, not a photo) for 2 years after the ban, along with the fingerprint of their document number; new verifications are compared against these templates only. A refusal can be challenged at contact@weared.ch: it is then reviewed by a person.

We apply the following periods:

• Photos of the identity document and verification selfies: kept encrypted on our server for up to 1 year after the decision, to keep proof of the check, prevent fraud (forged documents, re-registration) and fine-tune our checks, then deleted; 30 days after they were sent if no decision has been made; immediately if the person is a minor or if you delete your account. The face template computed to compare the faces (a series of numbers derived from the face, not a photo — biometric data) is deleted as soon as the decision is made, unless the account is banned for fraud or because the person is a minor: it is then kept for 2 years after the ban, without any image, solely to prevent the same person from signing up again. If the verification was done by our fallback provider Didit, the images remain with it, where they are automatically deleted after 1 month; its audit logs (without documents) are kept for 365 days — see its privacy notice.
• Proof of verification (status and date of the verification, date of birth, expiry date and country of the document, check scores, a fingerprint of the document number used to spot one document being used for two accounts — never the number itself; for a Didit verification: result, date, control reference, date of birth): kept for as long as the account exists, deleted when it is closed.
• Accounting and transaction records: 10 years, pursuant to art. 958f CO.
• Account and content: deleted when the account is closed, subject to the legal obligations above.

You may request early deletion of your verification data at any time: contact@weared.ch.