Every profile on Parda is checked by a person before any other member can see it. There are two levels: a selfie check that every profile passes, and an optional ID check that adds an "ID verified" badge. This page explains both, what they prove, and — more importantly — what they do not.
Level 1: the selfie check (every profile)
The last step of sign-up opens your camera and captures three frames about a second apart while you look at the screen, blink and turn your head a little. There is no file upload control on that page at all, so a saved photograph cannot be submitted. The selfie is never shown to other members.
The three frames are compared using a 32×32 greyscale fingerprint, producing a motion score from 0 to 100. A photograph held up to a camera scores 0. The frames are stitched into one strip and shown only to the reviewing team. The score is a filter, not a verdict: a person reviews every selfie. They confirm:
- a real, live person is in the frames and the face moved between them;
- the person looks clearly adult — anyone who appears to be under 18 is refused;
- where the profile has photos, the same person appears in them. If a profile photo appears on a stock site or somebody else’s social media, the profile is rejected.
Until the selfie is approved you can browse and like, but nobody can see your profile.
Level 2: the ID check (optional, adds a badge)
From your account you can also submit a government photo identity document: passport, driving licence, voter ID or PAN. We do not use Aadhaar, because a private platform cannot require it: the Supreme Court struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2018). The reviewer confirms the face on the document matches your selfie, that the document does not appear edited or photographed off a screen, and that the date of birth shows you are 18 or over. Members can choose to see only ID-verified profiles.
What happens to the documents afterwards
- Encrypted with AES-GCM at rest, under a key held outside the database.
- Served only through an authenticated admin route. Every single view is written to an audit log with who opened it and when.
- Deleted 30 days after a successful review. Rejected or abandoned submissions are deleted after 180 days.
- Only the last four characters of the number and a one-way hash remain afterwards, so we can prevent duplicate accounts without holding the number.
- No other member ever sees any of it, in any circumstance.
What the checks mean
A visible profile means: a person at Parda looked at a live selfie and concluded it shows a real adult. The "ID verified" badge also means: they compared it with a government photo ID that appears genuine and shows somebody 18 or over.
It does not mean a background check, a criminal record check, a character reference, a check on marital status, or any assurance about how that person will behave. We cannot verify whether somebody is married, and we do not claim to. Members remain strangers. Read the Safety Centre before meeting anyone.
Why the ID badge is worth adding
Members can filter their browse to ID-verified profiles only, and the badge is the clearest signal that separates a real person from a fake profile. It is optional because many people are, reasonably, wary of sending identity documents to any website; the selfie check alone keeps bots and stolen photos out.
If you are rejected
You will be told which of the checks failed, and you can resubmit. If you believe the decision was wrong, the grievance process gets you a review by somebody who was not involved in the original decision.
Privacy of the process itself
If you add the ID check, the verification team sees your legal name because that check requires it. It is not written to your profile, not shown to any member, and not used anywhere else in the product. See the Privacy Policy and the data table in Law Enforcement Requests.