Overview
When you set up a Database Verification, you can configure:
- Fields: The personal information you want end users to provide.
- Examples of fields include: first name, last name, date of birth, social security number.
- Match requirements: The rules for what qualifies as a “match” between the information an end user provides and a record in a known database. You can make match requirements stricter or more flexible.
- Checks: The specific Verification checks to run against the provided information.
Settings
Fields
Fields are the pieces of personal information you want end users to provide. You can choose the fields you want to require. Commonly-used fields include:
- Name
- Address
- Date of birth
- Phone number
- Social security number
- Note: You can require only the last 4 digits, or the full 9 digits.
Match requirements
Match requirements define what qualifies as a “match” between the information an end user provides and a record in a known database. A match requirement can, for example, affect whether a typo causes a match to fail; and whether a nickname provided by the user is considered a valid version of their first name.
Match requirements are defined per-field. For example, you can have a different match requirement for each of first name, last name, and date of birth.
You can make match requirements stricter or more flexible. To make it easy to configure, Persona offers two out-of-the-box options with strong defaults:
- Full Match: The information must match exactly. A single-character difference will lead to no match.
- Partial Match: The information must match, with room for slight differences that depend on the field. For example, for first name, common nicknames are allowed, and a low threshold of typos is allowed.
Note: In general, requiring a stricter (full) match will reduce your database verification pass rates.
Checks
You can configure the specific Verification checks to run against the provided information. For more information, see the “Database Checks” section of the Verification checks reference.