Security Measures During Self Tours

Caretaker's smart access system is designed to keep properties safe during self-tours by exercising precise control over who is granted access and how long they have it for. A tour can't happen unless it meets our four-pronged safety criteria:

1. Viewers must verify their identity
2. Viewers must add a payment method
3. Access windows must be less than one hour
4. Access methods must expire even if unused

User authentication checks

Getting verified for viewings is the first step in our multi-stepped applications system. As long as each viewers identity is in our records we can take actions in the event that damage or theft is reported during their time window.

Biometric identity verification.

Caretaker works with Stripe to conduct identity verification online. Stripe builds technology that’s used by millions of companies around the world like Amazon, Google, and Zoom. They help with everything from accepting payments to managing subscriptions to verifying identities.

Stripe helps Caretaker confirm identity by conducting the following checks:

1. Stripe will capture images of the front and back of the viewer's government-issued photo ID and review to ensure that the document is authentic. They’ve built an automated identity verification technology that looks for patterns to help determine if an ID document is real or fake. This process is like a bank teller checking an ID document to confirm that it’s real.
2. Stripe will capture photos of the viewer's face and review them to confirm that the photo ID belongs to them. They’ve built automated identity verification technology that uses distinctive physiological characteristics of your face (known as biometric identifiers) to match the captured photos with the photo on the ID document. This process is similar to a bank teller confirming that the photo on an ID document is of the person standing in front of them based on the shape of their nose or eyes—except a lot more accurate.
3. Stripe will collect their name, date of birth, and government ID number, and check this information against a global set of databases to confirm that it exists.

Payment method checks

There are two security benefits of collecting payment method information before a tour.

1. It ostensibly allows Caretaker to charge the card if damage or theft is attributed to the viewer, which can act as a deterrent.

2. The payment method itself can be checked for extra risk factors using Stripe Radar's fraud detection systems. Radar surfaces risk factors that are associated with fraud such as:

   • A high number of countries associated with a single payment method
   • The distance between the IP address, billing address or shipping address
   • The email has a low authorization rate across all of the transactions that were handled by Stripe

Understanding time-based access

Precise, temporary access makes it more difficult to use the viewings system for theft or vandalism. Caretaker only integrates with smart locks that can grant access for specific time windows ends.

that expire after the time window - this applies to both pin codes and Bluetooth authentication.

Optional extras

Additional hardware devices - like sensors, video doorbells, and cameras - can increase Caretaker's built-in security measures by making it easier to match a damage report with an account holder. For example, if a theft is reported in the afternoon of a day with back-to-back tours then it would be difficult to know which viewer may have stolen the item. If it's big enough to see on camera then this footage would serve as a useful backstop. - that can increase security.