Facebook has acquired Confirm, a Boston-based startup that specializes in identity verification solutions. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Confirm has developed APIs and SDKs that can be integrated into applications that require easy and secure authentication of driver’s licenses and other government IDs. The company’s product leverages advanced pattern analysis and forensic checks to determine if an ID is legitimate.
Before being acquired by Facebook, the company’s website said its products had been used by more than 750 organizations around the world to authenticate customer identity documents.
“When we launched Confirm, our mission was to become the market’s trusted identity origination platform for which other multifactor verification services can build upon,” reads a message posted on the Confirm.io website following the acquisition. “Now, we’re ready to take the next step on our journey with Facebook.”
Confirm has informed customers that it will wind down its existing ID authentication products. The company’s employees will join Facebook in Boston.
“We are excited to welcome the Confirm team to Facebook,” a Facebook spokesperson told SecurityWeek. “Their technology and expertise will support our ongoing efforts to keep our community safe.”
Facebook asks users to send a scan or photo of their ID to show account ownership or confirm their name. It is possible that the technology obtained as a result of the Confirm acquisition will be used to improve this system.
Confirm was founded by Walter Doyle, whose consumer mobile company WHERE.com was acquired by PayPal in 2011; mobile entrepreneur and venture capitalist Bob Geiman; and Ralph Rodriguez, founder of Delfigo Security, a multifactor authentication company acquired by IBM.
In January 2016, the company announced that it had raised $4 million in a seed funding round.
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Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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