Identity and verification checks

What Barota checks, what each badge means, and what it does not mean.

Barota checks two different things, and keeps them apart. Every member's identity is checked once, when they join. On top of that, a business, a licensed professional or a Hub can ask Barota to check something specific about them, and show the result as a badge.

Your identity check

Every member completes an identity check as part of signing up. It is how Barota keeps to one real, adult person per account.

1. During sign-up, after you accept the terms, choose Start identity check.
2. Our identity verification partner asks for a passport, driving licence or national ID card, and a live selfie. It takes a couple of minutes.
3. You come straight back to Barota. The page moves on by itself when the result arrives, usually within a minute or two.

If you joined before this was part of signing up, Barota asks you to do it once, the next time you sign in. Your account, posts and messages stay exactly as they were.

Nothing about your identity check appears on your profile. It is the minimum for being on Barota, not a badge.

If the check asks you to try again, it usually means the photo could not be read: use good light, avoid glare, and keep all four corners of the document in view. If a check does not pass, your account is not opened, and Barota does not say which part did not pass. If you think that is wrong, contact support and a person will look at it.

A sign-up that has not finished its identity check within 3 days is deleted, along with anything entered so far.

The checks beyond identity

• Business registration (Level 1): shows that a business is a real, registered company. It is needed before a business's first public listing.
• Professional credentials: for professions a regulator licenses or registers, such as pharmacists, nurses or electricians.
• Representing an institution (Level 2): for a Hub run by a real school, place of worship, charity or association.

Each check is shown on its own, with the date it was checked, and they are never added up into a score. You can see everything you have submitted, and where each check stands, in Your checks.

What the badges mean

See What verification badges mean for every badge and exactly what each one says was checked.

What it costs

Each check is paid for by the business or professional being checked, never by Barota. These checks are not open yet. You can look through the steps, but nothing can be submitted or charged until their prices are published. The identity check every member completes is free.

Privacy

Barota keeps the result of your identity check, your date of birth as shown on the document, the country that issued it, and a one-way reference that ties the document to your account. It does not keep a copy of your document or your selfie; our identity verification partner processes those. Documents you upload for the other checks are stored privately. Only you and Barota's Verification team can open them, and every time the team opens one it is logged. See the Privacy Policy.

Reporting a problem

If a badge looks wrong, use Report on that profile or Hub, or contact support. If one of your own checks has a mistake in it, you can withdraw it from Your checks and submit it again.