Every new advertiser is now ID & face verified
New advertisers now confirm their identity with a government ID and a live face scan before their profile goes live. Here is how it works, what the Verified badge means, and what we never show.
Trust is the whole point of a directory like ours. Visitors want to know that the person in the photos is real and an adult. Advertisers want to know that the people next to them on the page went through the same checks they did. Starting this week, every new advertiser on RedLightAd verifies their identity before their profile is published.
How verification works
The check is the last step of creating a profile, and it takes a few minutes on a phone:
- Scan your ID. You photograph a government-issued ID, such as a passport, national ID card or driving licence.
- Do a live face scan. You look into your camera for a short liveness check. This proves a real person is present right now, not a photo of a photo.
- We match the two. The face scan is compared with the photo on the ID, and the date of birth on the ID is checked.
The check runs through Didit, a specialised identity verification provider, so the scan happens in a secure hosted flow instead of a file upload to us. If that service is ever unavailable, you can still upload your ID and a selfie for our team to review manually.
Adults only, checked before anything goes live
Your profile stays private until the check is approved. If the date of birth on the ID shows the person is under 18, the verification is rejected and the profile is never published. You can choose "Do it later" and finish your profile first, but nobody sees it until you are verified.
This is on top of the rules that already applied: a manual review of new profiles, and zero tolerance for minors, coercion and trafficking.
The Verified badge, and what it means for clients
Verified profiles carry a Verified badge. You can tap it. A small dialog explains exactly what was checked:
- ID & face verified: a government ID scan plus a live face scan matched to the ID.
- 18+ confirmed: RedLightAd confirmed the advertiser is an adult.
- Real person: a real, present person completed the live check.
- When: the month the verification was completed.
For visitors, that badge is the quickest way to tell a verified advertiser apart from everyone else. It does not replace your own judgement, so our safety tips still apply, but it removes a lot of guesswork.
Your ID is never shown publicly
Verification is about proving who you are to us, not to the public. Here is what that means in practice:
- Your ID, your face scan and your legal name are never shown on your profile or anywhere else on the site.
- The public badge only says that you passed, and in which month. The data behind the badge contains no personal details at all.
- From the instant check we store only the outcome and the details needed to prove you are an adult (name, date of birth, country and the decision), not the ID scan or face video.
- Your advertising name can stay your advertising name.
What it means for advertisers
If you advertise with us, verification is what makes your profile stand out from fake and copied profiles. Clients can see at a glance that you are real, and every new advertiser next to you has passed the same check.
Already have a profile? You can start the check from your dashboard at any time. New advertisers do it as part of signing up.
Questions about verification or your data? Our Help & Contact page has answers, and you can reach the team directly through the contact form.
