What is Driver’s License Verification?

For many, getting a driver’s license is a right of passage. You might have practiced and studied for months before taking your driving test. And, once you earn your license, there’s a good chance you’ll carry it in your wallet for decades. (There’s also a good chance you’ll occasionally wonder whether other drivers actually passed their test.)

Although it’s not the only type of government-issued photo ID, driver’s licenses are one of the most widespread. And asking for a driver’s license is one of the most common ways to verify someone’s identity or age.

What is driver’s license verification?

Driver’s license verification is a type of government ID verification that uses a state-issued driver’s license to confirm a person's age or identity. The process can help you determine if the driver’s license is authentic and whether the person is who they claim to be.

Many organizations use in-person driver’s license checks — think of liquor stores, bars, and other shops that sell age-restricted products. They often have devices to detect fake driver’s licenses or quickly tell employees whether the person is over 21 years old.

Online businesses don’t get to see or feel a driver’s license, but they can still use driver’s license verification as part of their digital identity verification workflow. The verification can help detect and deter fraud, and it may be an option to comply with required Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws and regulations.

At Persona, we use a distinct set of checks for government ID verifications, including driver’s license verifications, which is why we separate them from the broad category of document verification. However, other identity providers might consider driver’s license verification a type of document verification.

What industries normally verify a driver's license?

Driver’s license verifications are common in industries that require high levels of assurance during identity verification or that have age verification requirements, including:

Financial services
Cryptocurrencies
Online marketplaces
Healthcare
Social media
Online gaming
Gambling
Adult entertainment
Alcohol, tobacco, and firearms

Many companies will verify a driver’s license’s authenticity and the information on the license to confirm the user’s identity or age. However, companies should have alternative and fallback methods available to users who don’t have a driver’s license — for example, support for a different type of government-issued ID, such as a passport or state identification card.

How does online driver’s license verification work?

The online driver’s license verification process generally has three steps:

Upload an image of the license: The verification starts with a user taking and submitting a photo of their driver’s license. Then, the software conducts image pre-processing checks to see if the image is acceptable. For example, it may make sure the entire driver’s license was captured, the image isn’t blurry, and there isn’t a lot of glare.
Verify the driver’s license: The verification system then confirms the authenticity of the image to verify that the driver’s license is real. For example, it may ensure the image wasn’t Photoshopped, that the ID conforms to the issuing state’s templates, and that it has the correct security features.
Extract and compare data: The system then extracts the person’s name, birthday, and other relevant information such as the driver’s license number, expiration date, issue date, and barcode. You can compare the extracted data to what the user submits on an application or information from an existing profile to verify the driver’s identity and age.

If you can’t verify the license or user because you have trouble extracting information, you might prompt the user to submit a new photo of their driver’s license. Or, when the verification flags potential issues, you might reject the application, send it to manual review, or ask the individual to complete additional verification steps.

Two common types of additional verifications include:

1. Selfie check

Some organizations add a selfie check to their driver’s license verification process to help ensure that the license wasn’t stolen and that the person is present when submitting the photo. It’s a standard requirement for companies in high-risk industries, such as fintechs.

Other companies might use a selfie check as a step-up verification that’s triggered when risk signals identify an applicant as a potential bad actor.

A selfie check requires the person to take a selfie, or a series of selfies, using a webcam or mobile phone. Video verifications are also a common alternative. The captured images are compared to the photo from the driver’s license. Liveness detection techniques help confirm the authenticity of the selfie or video and detect attempts to fool the system, such as deepfakes.

2. AAMVA check

Some identity verification solutions, including Persona, offer an additional check that can compare the extracted information from a driver’s license to information from the issuing DMV. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) runs the Driver’s License Data Verification (DLDV) service, which is why we call these AAMVA verification checks.

Available in participating states, an AAMVA check can return a true or false indicator for up to 15 attributes, such as the name, address, state, zip code, eye color, height, and expiration date.

The check doesn’t confirm whether the license is real or whether it belongs to the person using it, but it can help you detect bad actors who bought, created, or altered a driver’s license.

As with selfie checks, the AAMVA check is often a step-up option companies use when there’s a high-risk applicant or high-value transaction.

‍A recent option: verifying mobile driver’s licenses

States are starting to issue and support mobile driver's licenses (mDLs) as a form of electronic identification. They’re also commonly called digital driver’s licenses (dDLs), virtual driver’s licenses (vDLs), electronic driver’s licenses (eDLs), or electronic IDs (eIDs).

To get an mDL, users go through an IDV process, which may include a database verification and selfie check. They can then store their mDL within a state-sponsored app or a mobile wallet, such as Apple Pay or Google Wallet. The encrypted mDLs include many of the same data points you find on a physical driver’s license, and users may need to authenticate their identity with a pin, password, face scan, or fingerprint scan before they can access or use their mDL.

For businesses, mDL verifications can offer a low-friction alternative to a physical driver’s license verification. You don’t need to request an image and deal with potential extraction issues due to poor image quality, and you can allow users to bypass an additional selfie check if they already used a face scan to submit their mDL.

Persona now supports mDL verifications for organizations that obtain Apple's entitlement. We can automatically detect when users have a valid mDL on their device and prompt users to use their mDL to verify their age or identity rather than submitting a picture of their license.

Benefits and drawbacks of driver’s license verification

Driver’s license verifications are one of the most popular identity verification (IDV) options — for good reason. Many people have and regularly carry their driver’s license or a similar state-issued photo ID. And they already went through their state’s IDV process to get their license.

However, online verification can be hampered by poor image quality, which can lead to false negatives (when a legitimate user can’t verify their identity) or a poor customer experience that leads to dropoffs.

Bad actors also might create or purchase fraudulent driver’s licenses, or use stolen driver’s license information from data breaches to commit identity fraud.

As an overview, the pros and cons of using driver’s license verifications include:

Pros	Cons
Many people have a driver’s license and are comfortable using it to verify their identity and age	Some people don’t have a driver’s license
Individuals have to go through an in-person verification process to get a driver’s license from their state	Bad actors can easily create high-quality fake driver’s licenses
Driver’s licenses’ templates and security features can be helpful when you’re automating verifications	Bad actors can trick DMVs into issuing them a driver’s license

How to verify a driver's license: Manual vs. automated verification

Knowing how to verify a driver’s license’s authenticity is an important first step if you want to use one to verify someone’s identity or age.

Although it’s no longer common, some organizations manually verify the pictures of driver’s licenses they receive. To do this, someone might compare the image to a template from the issuing state and look for signs of tampering.

However, manual verifications are slow and ineffective at catching fraud. Bad actors can easily edit images or use generative AI to create realistic images of driver’s licenses and other identifying documents.

Automating verifications can increase efficiency and help you spot invisible signs of risk, such as inconsistencies in the image’s metadata and pixel-level signs of editing.

Here’s a high-level overview of how manual and automated verifications differ:

	Manual verification	Automated verification
Process	A human reviewer checks the image of the ID, compares details, and may contact the user for clarification.	A verification system extracts and analyzes ID data using machine vision or AI, runs checks, and flags issues.
Fraud detection	Even experienced reviewers may miss sophisticated fakes or patterns.	Uses advanced checks, including checking invisible signals and patterns, to flag potential fraud.
User exoerience	There could be a long wait time, especially when your products or services are in high demand.	Often very fast (think seconds), especially if you guide users to take high-quality images of their driver’s license.
Customization	You may need to retrain staff when states issue new driver’s licenses or pass new laws.	You can quickly update rules and workflows based on new risks or regulations.
Privacy and compliance	Higher risk of exposing personal information, as employees or contractors regularly access users’ data.	Automated systems can reduce exposure risk and maintain audit logs for compliance.
Cost	The labor-intensive process can cost more as you scale.	There’s a lower marginal cost per verification as volume increases.

Verifying driver’s licenses with Persona

Depending on your industry and risk tolerance, driver’s license verification might be part of your basic onboarding process or a step-up solution to help deter bad actors. And mDL verifications could be a great option — once they become more common.

When available and appropriate, adding selfie checks or AAMVA checks can also give you more confidence that you’re dealing with a legitimate user. But there’s always a delicate balance of managing risk without sacrificing the user experience.

Persona gives you the tools to build your ideal IDV process, and Persona’s Dynamic Flow can help you add driver’s license, selfie, and database verifications without adding too much friction to a web or mobile experience.

Get started for free or contact us today.

What is driver’s license verification?