Wise (formerly Transfer Wise) are asking me to send them photo of my ID
Wise (formerly Transfer Wise) are asking me to send them photo of my ID
Hi HN,
I wonder if anyone here knows how is Wise handling photos of ID when they request one.
I'm Wise customer since 2012, used it without any problem multiple times and was happy with the service I was receiving.
A few days ago I received an email asking me to send a photo of my ID and also photo of my face.
I understand they are doing this to fulfill some regulations but on the other side I can't stop thinking what damage will it cause if they fall a victim of hackers attack and photo of my ID is stolen from them. In the country where I live you can take a loan based on information from ID.
Please share if you have gone through that process or if you know what they do with those photos once they confirm the photo of face matches with the photo on ID. I asked them through e-mail and will post here if I hear back.
--edit--
I should have mentioned photos are uploaded through Wise web app, not through the e-mail, sorry if my explanation was confusing.
There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.
The regulations that require financial institutions to verify ID, also have data security requirements.
Wise is fairly reputable so you should be OK
2You'll be alright if you send it to them. If you trust them with your money, you can trust them with your id.
There's a balance between security, privacy, and convenience. The small risk to security and the forfeiture of privacy is worth the convenience in my calculations. Your math might look a bit different, and if you're not comfortable sending them a photo of your id, no one would blame you.
1It might be illegal in your country, but you can consider generating a person's face (and details) and creating a fake ID photo using it to protect your identity.
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