In our face recognition, a confidence score measures how certain ZipID is that two faces (e.g., a selfie and a government ID photo) belong to the same person. We express that confidence as a percentage or decimal (0–100%).
Confidence Score > 90%:
Meaning: The system is highly confident that the faces match.
Interpretation:
The two images likely belong to the same person.
96-98%: Extremely strong match.
90–95%: Very strong match, often considered "definitive" for practical purposes.
76-89%: Strong match, do not need resubmission upon human review
Common Usage: Many applications (banking, identity verification, airport kiosks) use a 90% or higher threshold to approve matches automatically. ZipID uses a highly tuned algorithm, and our confidence scores thus vary slightly from the norm. As federal law requires, ZipID presents the confidence score to enable the employer to make the decision.
Caution: Although our algorithm ranks in the 99.998% in accuracy in National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) real time testing in 1:1 matching, we do not guarantee that every result will be accurate. For example, if the image quality is low from either the selfie due to pixalization, lighting, face obfuscation, or the overall image quality of the government ID is poor, or either the selfie or government ID is manually uploaded, confidence scores may be inaccurate.
Recommendation: Please assure that whenever possible, your employee uploads a live photo of both the selfie and government ID, as the live uploads are calibrated to work with face match algorithm for optimal accuracy.
Confidence Score < 76%:
Meaning: The system has less certainty about the match.
Interpretation:
59-75%: Possible match, but requires review. Often flagged for manual review by a human.
Below 58%: Likely no match — system will often reject automatically.
Recommendation: Any score below 76% should trigger a request for an in-person or video conference as normally required, but also a careful review of both ID and the person, as these scores require more evidence of matching between the person and their ID.
Confidence Score 99 - 100%: likely the same photo.
Recommendation: Reject and request resubmission, as any score at 100% should trigger an in-person or video conference as normally required, but also a careful review of both ID and the person, as these scores require more evidence of matching between the person and their ID.
Quick visual:
Confidence Score | Interpretation | Action |
99 - 100% | Likely same image | Heads Up: It looks like the same face may have been used for both the selfie and the ID image. While this might just be a coincidence, it could also be a sign of attempted fraud. Next step:
|
96–98% | Extremely strong match | Great news: There's an extremely high likelihood this person is who they say they are. Next step: As a best practice, take a moment during the interview to compare their face to the photo on the ID — just to confirm everything lines up. |
90–95% | Very strong match | Great news: There's a very strong likelihood this person is who they say they are. Next step: As a best practice, take a moment during the interview to compare their face to the photo on the ID — just to confirm everything lines up. |
76-89% | Strong match | Good news: There's a strong likelihood this person is who they say they are. Next step: As a best practice, take a moment during the interview to compare their face to the photo on the ID — just to confirm everything lines up. |
59-75% | Possible match | Hmm… this could be a match, but the image quality is a bit low or these are different people in each image. Next step: You might want to request a resubmission and remind the candidate to:
If they originally used a webcam, a smartphone may provide better results. Alternatively, if you’re reasonably confident it’s a match, just take a moment during the interview to compare their face to the ID photo to confirm everything looks right. |
<58% | Likely mismatch | Uh-oh, this is unlikely a match.
Next step: You may want to request a resubmission — the selfie or ID image may be low quality.
If the match looks unclear, it's okay to consider rejection, but a quick resubmission with better lighting and alignment could resolve the issue. |