SafetyPIN Technologies is a startup that has created a background check system and trust badge that lets people see at a glance if someone they met online - or elsewhere - is safe to meet offline.
According to the company's website, SafetyPIN has:
"developed a proprietary algorithm that draws on over 10,000 sources of data – and combines behavioral screening — to identify people you can trust the most – and assure them they can trust you, too."
The algorithm checks an applicant's criminal and financial history, verifies their ID, and asks them a series of behavioral profiling questions to determine whether or not they qualify for a SafetyPIN.
The chart below from SaftyPIN's website (click to enlarge) illustrates potential SafetyPIN applications. Most are related to the gig economy, but others are use cases where two people who don't know each other are meeting for various reasons.
Most background check companies only target businesses. But because of this mix of use cases, SafetyPIN is targeting both corporations and consumers with their service.
For corporate users they hope to become a background check service of choice for the hiring of independent workers (they currently are not providing background check services for the hiring of traditional employees).
For individuals, their pitch is a SafetyPIN will increase the confidence of the people you work with or are meeting with. Youth coaches, for example, are a prime target market.
And also unlike other background check companies, users receive and can display their SafetyPINs on their social media accounts and websites.
With the growth of the Internet, peer-to-peer commerce, delivery services and the growing online to offline economy, people are increasingly interacting in new ways. This, of course, is leading to all sorts of trust issues.
Yet so far, most background checks and trust systems focus on only one party in a transaction or meeting - and mostly the sellers.
It seems like extending background checks to all parties is a logical step. It will be interesting to see if SafetyPIN, or others like it, are able to make a business out of doing this.
Comments