Identity-verification accuracy and fairness
A single accuracy percentage cannot tell an Irish buyer how an identity process will affect real users. Evaluate each component and the end-to-end decision at the deployed threshold, on representative documents, devices, environments and user groups.
Published vendor or laboratory results have defined datasets and scopes. They should not be generalized to an untested production population or configuration.
For: risk, model governance, privacy, product and procurement teams. This is independent information, not legal, compliance or security advice.
Measure both kinds of harm
- False acceptance: an impostor or invalid case is accepted.
- False rejection: a legitimate person is rejected.
- Failure to acquire: the system cannot obtain a usable sample.
- Abandonment: the person leaves before a decision.
- Manual-review burden: uncertainty is shifted to operations.
Thresholds are policy
The threshold converts a score into an action. Record who sets it, which loss it optimises, how it changes by risk and how overrides are governed. Test it against attack resistance and legitimate-user outcomes together.
Fairness review
- Results across relevant age, gender, skin-tone and disability dimensions where lawful and evidenced.
- Document nationality/type, device quality, lighting and connectivity.
- Language, literacy and assisted-completion needs.
- Alternative route and appeal outcomes.
- Whether monitoring itself collects unnecessary sensitive data.
Production evidence
Monitor components and end-to-end outcomes, investigate changes, and version the model, SDK, threshold and document library. Do not wait for a complaint before checking whether one group experiences disproportionate failure.
Evidence and limits
MyID separates enacted rules, official implementation material, testing and vendor claims. A source can establish what its publisher says; it does not prove that every product, deployment or interpretation works as claimed. Where Irish implementation remains unsettled, this page says so.
- NIST SP 800-63A-4 identity proofing
- General Data Protection Regulation
- EDPB Statement 1/2025 on Age Assurance
Sources checked 22 August 2026. Re-check the linked primary material before making a consequential decision.
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