Experimenting with Entra Verified ID

2024-11-26 15:02:00

login page of woodgrove

Ever since LinkedIn introduced their Verifications, they've been constantly pushing all their members to get verified because (of course!) other members will be more likely to trust you. Since the verification process generally involves using Persona to read your passport, a lot of people are flat out refusing to do so. Be it for privacy, be it for deadnaming or for other reasons, there's plenty of discussion about red flags.

Reading through LinkedIn's verification options, I noticed there's an alternative: employment verification, where your employer will confirm that you are indeed in their service. Interesting!

Since I am self-employed and I own an actual company, does that mean I can verify myself? Why yes, yes it does. 

I did some reading and pieced together some documentation:

The process I followed is as such:

  1. I went into my Azure Portal and under Entra ID I enabled the "Verified ID" functionality. 
  2. Under Verified ID I also enabled the optional Face Check function.
  3. I then went to the "My Account" site for my Microsoft AD account and set myself up with a proper, representative photograph. *
  4. In "My Account" I then clicked the option to "Get my Verified ID". This gives me a QR code.
  5. Using the Azure MFA app on my smartphone I scanned this QR. This set me up with a brand new verified ID. It includes my name, my company email and my photograph. 

*: If you do not have a photograph of yourself setup under My Account, Face Check will fail. It will give you an error message like "No face detected in Verified ID. Use a different Verified ID with a better photo and try again.".

After setting myself up with a Verified ID, I used Microsoft's Woodgrove public test app. Here, I clicked the option that I have a Verified ID, which now gives me a QR to scan. I do so with the Azure MFA app, which prompts me if I indeed want to share my identity. 

The Azure MFA app then starts the front-facing camera, makes a whole bunch of photographs and then uses Microsoft's AI to compare it to the photograph that's setup in my Verified ID. This is why I earlier ran into the "No face detected" error message: my account avatar was the Unixerius logo instead of my actual face. 

And it works!

Next up: I have submitted a request to LinkedIn / Microsoft, as per the instructions detailed here. I hope that they will in fact enable Workplace Verification for Unixerius. 

This has been an educational day!


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