Hi Food Waste Heroes 👋

As many of you know, we plan to introduce ID verification for the Food Waste Heroes Programme. This is to prevent bad actors creating new accounts, and to improve overall trust and safety in the Olio community.

Following your feedback to our survey earlier in the year, in which the overwhelming majority of Food Waste Heroes supported the move, we plan to implement full ID verification (passport or driving licence) rather than just address verification via utility bills or databases (e.g. the electoral register), which is too easy to game.

Over the past couple of months we've been speaking to several 3rd party ID verification providers, and have just completed a formal RFP process (request for proposal) to select our chosen provider. Factors we considered include, but are not limited to:

Our chosen provider is GBG, who work with a number of well-known banks, telecoms providers, airlines and more.

We're now working hard to integrate the service into the app and Volunteer Hub. We'll start verifying a small number of accounts before rolling out more broadly. We're aiming to begin with returning suspended users and new Food Waste Heroes within the next 1 to 2 months.

The FAQ below pulls together answers to the questions you've been asking on the forum. We'll keep updating it as the work progresses, and we'll publish a fuller version closer to launch. Thank you for your patience while we do this important work carefully 🙏

We're starting with two groups:

We plan to extend ID verification more broadly over time. Exactly how that works for existing Food Waste Heroes, including whether it'll be required, is something we're still working through. We'll share more details well in advance of any change. As one of our values is being Inclusive, we want to find a way to keep longstanding Food Waste Heroes onboard that do not have a photo ID.

At the moment our focus is on rolling out ID verification for the Food Waste Heroes Programme. Over time, we may extend this to other parts of the Olio community on an optional basis, although for some user groups verification may become mandatory.

We're aiming to verify the first new and returning suspended accounts within the next 1 to 2 months. Any wider rollout will come later, and we'll communicate well in advance.

We spoke to multiple 3rd party ID verification providers, and then ran a formal RFP process (request for proposal) to select our chosen provider. Factors we considered included, but were not limited to:

Our chosen provider is GBG, a well established verification company who works with a number of well-known banks, telecoms providers, airlines and more.

At this stage, just a photo of your photo ID. You'll upload a picture of an accepted document, and GBG will check that it's genuine.

We've chosen to start with the lightest-touch check possible, which is just a document check. If we detect significant attempts to game the system, we may add biometric checks (taking a selfie or doing a liveness check) later.

We're working with GBG to accept as many photo IDs as possible, including documents issued in other countries. GBG can recognise documents from a wide range of countries already and we'll confirm the full accepted list when we have more details.

We will accept valid IDs if they expired no less than five years ago. The purpose of the check is to confirm your identity, not whether you can travel.

No. This is an identity check, not an address check. The reason for not checking addresses is explained below.

If you're new to the Food Waste Heroes Programme, you'll need to verify using a photo ID before claiming a collection. If you're an existing Food Waste Hero, look out for our communications as we work through the broader rollout: we'll let you know what's needed well in advance of any change reaching you.

Just your name and date of birth, and expiry dates of the photo ID used. That's it. We use these to match you to your Olio account and to prevent previously banned users from coming back under a new identity.

In most cases, no. The document is handled by GBG, and Olio receives the information via an API, so in the majority of cases no humans - either at GBG or Olio - will look at your photo ID.

In specific scenarios, such as when investigating a complaint or reviewing a failed verification, a small number of authorised Olio staff may need to access the document. Any such access is very limited, and restricted to authorised staff.

The document image and verification record sit with GBG, not on Olio's servers. We'll publish GHG’s full retention details (what's kept, where, and for how long) in the launch FAQs.

Identity data is held only for as long as we need it. We'll set out the specifics in the launch FAQs alongside our data retention policy.

We have completed a Legitimate Interest Assessment (LIA) and are satisfied that requiring ID verification is proportionate to our objectives which are to (1) reduce the number of bad actors, and (2) raise the overall standard of safety and security on the platform (particularly important given that Food Waste Heroes meet Olioers in person and handle food in their homes).

Our volunteer agreement and privacy policy will be updated accordingly, in line with UK GDPR. We'll publish the updated versions before ID verification goes live so you can see exactly what's changing.

When suspected bad-actor accounts are flagged and suspended through our normal processes, any attempt to come back to the app will trigger the verification check. They'll need to prove their identity to return, which is a meaningful barrier. If we then detect that the same person was previously suspended or banned from our platform, they won’t be able to become a Food Waste Hero. We also believe the verification step itself will deter misuse of the platform over time.

GBG's checks are designed to detect fraudulent, photoshopped, or AI-generated tampering on documents, which is one of the reasons we chose them. If we see patterns of account handover starting to emerge, we'll add biometric checks (such as a live selfie matched to the document) to close that loophole.

Address checks are too easy to game if it’s based on public databases like the electoral roll, where one could easily pass as a friend or neighbour. More accurate hard address checks, such as recent bank statements, utility bills, council tax bills, add a lot of friction and they are very expensive to operate, and would exclude a lot of people that may not have proof of address, or whose address is not up to date. Identity is the stronger mechanism.

Many of you have told us loud and clear that the single most important thing we can do to improve Olio is to stop bad actors. This is also important for maintaining our strong relationship with the businesses who donate the food.

We'll keep updating these FAQs, and we'll publish a fuller version closer to launch. If you have a question we haven't covered, please submit via this form and we’ll update this page.

Thank you for caring about this, and for the time so many of you have put into sharing your views. We don't take it for granted 💚