Emptor, leading Latin American identity verifier, expands to Costa Rica

Contxto– Emptor, an automated identity verification and background check provider, has announced its expansion into Costa Rica. The future is here! Well, actually, it may have been here for quite some years now. 

Though now based in New York, Emptor was founded in 2016 and has Peruvian roots. It offers its services to several countries across Latin America: Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, and now Costa Rica. 

Companies in Emptor’s client list include DiDi, Beat, and Cornershop, which back in August partnered with the identity verification provider to carry out background checks for its shoppers. 

In Peru, Emptor offers its clients the ability to validate the Certiadulto, a certificate created by the Peruvian government to help citizens search for employment amid the Covid-19 epidemic. 

Identity verification in Latin America

The type of service provided by Emptor is not new, yet its implementation is still lacking in countries like Mexico, where inefficient ID confirmation systems are still widely in use. 

In view of this, several identity confirmation startups like Tu Identidad and Incode have been emerging in the Latin American landscape.

In addition, and in a similar manner, the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE has collaborated in the past with the Venezuelan government in the development of the “carnet de la patria” (Spanish for “fatherland ID”), an intelligent identity card used to regulate the citizenship’s access to government aid and to acknowledge the population’s socioeconomic status. 

Emptor: Automation and the human touch

This technology, as any other, comes with its downsides. Can we really trust a machine with a person’s identity? 

One entry in Emptor’s blog, for example, tells how there was an individual who failed a background check because they shared the name with a human trafficker. 

Of course, Emptor cleared the mistake through a manual review by the company’s legal team. This situation helps illustrate the fact that these types of technologies should be part of a holistic team of experts in different areas, which should be a rule of thumb in many different scenarios.

-BIC