Facebook has said it has acquired Confirm.io, a Boston based start-up that specializes in verifying anyone’s identity with respect to government issued cards such as a driver’s license and such. This way, any company would know if the person they are dealing with is indeed authentic.
Neither of the companies however confirmed how much the deal has been worth in financial terms but Confirm.io has stated they would henceforth cease to have an independent existence of its own. Rather, the start-up would merge with Facebook with it’s around 26 employees joining Facebook from now onwards.
Confirm.io also mentioned on its site having more than 750 clients. Facebook hasn’t stated whether they would render the same services that Confirm.io provided so far, that of confirming people’s identity.
The acquisition however does make a lot of sense for the social media giant that has been under fire in the US for hosting ads that is believed to have polarized voters prior to the US presidential elections. Russia based firms too are blamed for posting such discriminatory ads on the social media, a charge that the country vehemently denies.
However, with the latest acquisition, Facebook should be better positioned in authenticating the identity of anyone who wishes to post ad on its site. This way, the individual or firm posting an ad can also be tracked if found to engage in any illicit activities.
The same tech can also be used for other purposes as well, like verifying a valid user’s identity in case if he/she has been locked out or has lost the password.
So far, posting an ad on Facebook has been relatively simple as all that was needed was a live Facebook page, a valid credit card along with a few other documents. In fact, the whole approach with Facebook was to facilitate the process of buying an ad slot on its platform, which again was the most sought after given its positioning as the world’s most popular social media site.
