Etsy partners with Persona, a third-party company, to assist in verifying sellers’ identities to help protect the integrity of our marketplace, reduce fraud, and to comply with our legal obligations.

The verification process depends on where you are located.

For sellers outside of the EEA/UK

During the verification process, Etsy will collect a photo of your government ID and a selfie using Persona. Persona compares biometric data from these two images to help verify your identity. 

Your biometric data is stored temporarily by Etsy and Persona, which may include the use of Persona’s service providers, to help verify your identity and conduct certain fraud-prevention checks. The selfie and the image of your government ID will be retained for no longer than 6 years after your shop is closed. Your biometric information will be stored for no longer than 12 months, unless otherwise required by applicable legal requirements.

Your personal information may be managed by Etsy, Inc. or Etsy Ireland UC, or Etsy Payments Ireland Limited, depending on your location. For information on how your personal information is collected, used, and retained, see Etsy’s Privacy Policy and Persona’s Privacy Policy. 

If you previously provided consent to share your biometric data, you may submit a request to withdraw your consent.

For sellers in the EEA and UK

To set up an Etsy shop, we require sellers to verify their identity, which helps us protect the integrity of our marketplace, reduce fraud, and comply with our legal obligations. 

Who’s performing these checks?

A few different parts of Etsy are involved in the identity checks, depending on where you live:

• For the European Economic Area (EEA), verification is done by Etsy Ireland Unlimited Company (“EIUC”), as the data controller and provider of the Etsy marketplace in the EEA, as well as Etsy Payments Ireland Limited (“EPIL”), the data controller and provider of Etsy Payments in the EEA.
• For the United Kingdom (U.K.), verification is done by EIUC, the data controller and provider of both the Etsy marketplace and Etsy Payments in the U.K. 

We refer to all of these entities collectively as just “Etsy.”

Regardless of where you live, we get help running our verification checks from another company called Persona Identities, Inc., a service provider that specializes in online identity verification. You can read Persona’s Privacy Policy for more information.

What information is used to verify my identity?

We collect and use the following information to verify your identity:

• Seller account information: Your seller account information includes your name, date of birth, address, country of residence, and phone number that you provide when setting up your Etsy account. Learn more in our Privacy Policy. 
• Government ID: The government ID that you upload for verification. 
• Selfie: The live photos of yourself that you take and upload for verification.
• Biometric data (where applicable): If you consent to biometric verification (more details below), we scan your selfie and government ID photo to determine if the facial geometry is the same in both photos. 

How is my identity verified?

To verify your identity, we match your selfie to your government ID and compare your account details to the documentation you have provided.

You can choose to have your identity verified by biometric or non-biometric means.

• Biometric verification involves the use of facial scanning technology, an automated process that uses the “facial geometry” from both your selfie and government ID to compare the two.
• Non-biometric verification means a support agent will manually review and compare your selfie and government ID during the onboarding process. This process generally takes longer than biometric verification. 

How long is my information stored?

For 6 years after the day you close your seller account on Etsy, we retain:

• A copy of your government ID
• Your selfie
• All supporting identification and documentation
• The report from your verification/fraud prevention check

This is in line with our retention obligations under applicable laws. 

If you choose biometric verification, we will retain your biometric data for a maximum period of one year to ensure that fraudsters who fail verification do not attempt to reuse a fake ID.

What are my rights?

You have certain rights with respect to our identity verification practices, including:

• Right to Correction: By visiting your Account settings, you can correct and change certain personal information associated with your account. In some circumstances, changing certain details (such as your name) may require us to verify your identity again. 
• Right to Withdraw Consent: You can withdraw your consent to biometric verification at any time. This won’t affect the lawfulness of any verification that has taken place prior, and we’ll still need to retain your verification information due to our legal obligations. 
• Right to Appeal: If your verification status has been denied, you can file an appeal by contacting us via the methods below and we’ll review your case. 
• Rights With Respect to Automated Decision-Making: Automated decision-making is when a computer makes a decision based on information entered into a system without any human involvement. Our biometric verification falls into this category, but we only do this with your explicit consent. If you don’t consent to biometric verification, you can choose non-biometric verification (described above). We’ll ensure that any automated decision-making is carried out with appropriate safeguards and procedures so that decisions are accurate, and you always have the right to appeal any verification decision (as described above).

These rights are not absolute and may not apply to your circumstances.

For more information on your rights and how to exercise them, please see Etsy’s Privacy Policy. 

What if I still have questions?

If you have additional questions:

• Select Contact Support below to get in touch with our support team.
• Send an email to Etsy's Data Protection Officer at dpo@etsy.com.
• Write to us at: Etsy Support Team – Privacy Policy, 5th Floor, One Le Pole Square, Ship Street Great, Dublin 8, Ireland.