At Airbnb, trust is the cornerstone of our community – where millions of people across the world place trust in each other as they travel or host stays.
A key part of building this trust is verifying the identity of our users and preventing identity misuse on the platform. Our identity verification process is a series of steps we take to help ensure users are genuine.
When we verify your identity, we may ask you for a photo of your government ID and a selfie to help make sure it’s really you. Some users may be able to consent to the use of facial recognition technology (Automatic photo review) or choose Manual photo review to match these photos, where offered and consistent with applicable law.
If you choose Automatic photo review, you consent to Airbnb and our authorized third-party service providers creating a unique facial identifier from your photos using facial recognition technology. This unique facial identifier, which is a kind of biometric information, is used to analyze the facial features from the photos you submit to check if the faces match. Automatic photo review is designed to help verify your identity quicker. See How long we hold onto this biometric information for details on the retention of this data.
If you prefer, you can choose Manual photo review and a member of our team will compare your photos manually, without using facial recognition technology.
In select locations, your consent to Automatic photo review also includes the use of your biometric information to help prevent identity misuse, supporting our detection of fraudulent users. By consenting to Automatic photo review in these locations, you agree that Airbnb and our authorized third-party service provider(s) may retain a biometric template created from your photos to compare against other users' facial identifiers, helping us prevent misuse of your identity. You can withdraw your consent to this data being used for identity misuse at any time in the privacy section of your account settings. Withdrawing your consent does not impact your identity verification status. See How long we hold onto this biometric information for details on how your information is retained.
If you choose Manual photo review, no biometric template will be created and identity misuse detection will not be performed.
Facial recognition is only used if you choose Automatic photo review.
For purposes of identity verification and consistent with your choices described above, we’ll use automated facial recognition technology to create a unique facial identifier from the photos you provide. We will attempt to use this identifier to automatically match you in the photos you provided, to verify your identity.
If you consent to help prevent identity misuse as described above, your biometric template is compared against facial identifiers from other users who have also consented to facial recognition to help prevent identity misuse. Any matching identifiers across these users will be flagged to us.
If you choose Manual photo review, no facial recognition technology will be used on your photos during the identity verification process, and we’ll have a member of our team compare and match your photos.
Once you’ve been verified, an Identity verified badge will be displayed on your profile to indicate your verification status. The photos you submit in the identity verification process won’t be shown to other users on Airbnb or on your profile.
If we are unable to match your government ID and selfie photos using facial recognition, we may have a member of our team compare and match your photos manually to determine if your account can be verified. Learn more about why we verify identity.
Note: The photos you submit are not biometric information, but the unique facial identifier created when your photos are processed during the Automatic photo review is.
Keep in mind that no verification process is entirely accurate. Our facial recognition process may be affected by conditions such as the lighting, photo quality, or changes in appearance between pictures you provide. In cases where we’re unable to match your photos using facial recognition, we’ll conduct an additional manual review or you may need to take another selfie. If you take another selfie, you may choose to do a Manual photo review instead.
If you’re having trouble taking a photo that meets our requirements, or you believe we got it wrong, you can contact us.
Facial recognition for identity verification is available to users in certain locations around the world.
Facial recognition to help prevent identity misuse is available in certain locations in the Americas.
Users in China may be required to complete an alternative identity verification process using facial recognition. Learn more.
If you consent to using facial recognition, we’ll collect and share your selfie and government ID photos with authorized third-party service provider(s), to create a unique facial identifier. That will allow us to attempt to match your government ID and selfie photos using facial recognition technology. By “unique facial identifier,” we mean information about your physical biology detected by a software system—specifically, the facial features collected from the photos you submit—that is used for automatic photo review. This unique facial identifier may also be referred to as your biometric information, facial recognition data, or scan of your face geometry.
Know this unique facial identifier is not shared with Airbnb by our authorized third-party service provider(s).
Where you have also consented to help prevent identity misuse, a separate facial biometric identifier or “biometric template” is created and stored by our authorized third-party service provider(s). This biometric template is used solely to compare against other users' to help prevent misuse of identity information. It is not shared with Airbnb by our authorized third-party service provider(s).
As part of this process, we also collect certain technical, non-biometric information generated as part of the matching process. We briefly retain this information to serve our legitimate interest in evaluating the performance of the verification process and our authorized third-party service provider(s).
No application, website, or system is completely secure. However, we implement reasonable security policies and procedures to protect your facial recognition data, in alignment with our standard procedures for protecting personal information. We handle this data, like other information collected during identity verification, as described in our Privacy Policy.
Retention periods differ based on the type of biometric processing you’ve consented to:
Learn more about how we manage your data, such as government IDs and selfies, collected during the identity verification process.
Your information will be handled according to our Privacy Policy. If you consented to help prevent identity misuse, you can withdraw that consent at any time in the privacy section of your account settings without affecting your identity verification status or your access to Airbnb. Your biometric template will be deleted after withdrawal. Learn more about how to exercise your data subject rights.