Notary firm Proof is now offering a deepfake detection tool

Remote online notarization firm Proof (formerly known as Notarize) is stepping out of the notarization arena and into the wider realm of identity verification.

On Thursday, Proof announced the launch of Verify, which it describes as “a live face-to-face experience that delivers high-level assurance with identity verification performed in the presence of an agent.”

According to Proof, companies using Verify will have access to secure video links for directing users to. There, users can meet with a human agent. The user inputs their personal information and the agent can supervise the identity verification process, during which the agent will prompt the user to perform biometric identity verification. This includes taking a selfie and uploading their official identification documents.

As indicated by the name change from Notarize to Proof, Verify can be used on any business transaction, including something as mundane as a password reset, and not just a notary transaction.

“For us in our evolution from Notarize to Proof, our customers have said to us, ‘Great, you have digitized this, but now you need to secure it,’” Proof CEO Pat Kinsel said in a statement. “People have started to use our platform for all sorts of other things. We’ve long since allowed people to use the platform with their team or our notaries, so we started to see people use the tool to secure wire information or cash disbursement or a seller-side deal that didn’t need to be notarized.”

Kinsel said these other use applications led him and his team deeper on the path to investing in Proof’s fraud prevention capabilities.

According to its announcement, during a meeting, Proof will automatically perform a deepfake analysis to evaluate the fraud risk posed by the user. The company said that its deepfake detection process is supported by Reality Defender, which Proof will use after the meeting concludes to determine if the user is fraudulent based on the analysis of Reality Defender’s visual detection models.

“Reality Defender is proud to partner with Proof on their mission in securing all digital transactions,” Ben Colman, the co-founder and CEO of Reality Defender, said in a statement. “Trust is a fundamental tenet to the long-term success of our increasingly digital world, not to mention the billions lost annually to fraudulent actors impersonating consumers online.”