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NearID guide

What is physical presence verification?

Physical presence verification evaluates whether a linked person or device was observed at a trusted place during a defined time window. It adds a verifiable signal to an existing workflow; it does not replace identity, policy, or the customer's system of record.

See NearID's approachCompare verification methods
Three separate questions

Identity, presence, and authorization are not the same thing.

Reliable systems keep these decisions separate so a presence signal is not accidentally treated as proof of identity, permission, or intent.

Identity: who is this?
Account, KYC, HR, or another customer-owned process establishes identity.
Presence: was the linked device observed here?
NearID evaluates receiver, token, time-window, replay, and organization context.
Authorization: what should happen next?
The customer system applies its own attendance, access, payroll, or safety policy.
A practical verification chain
1. Link the device
Associate a device with the customer-side user or subject reference through an approved onboarding flow.
2. Rotate anonymous tokens
Broadcast short-lived BLE values instead of a stable user identifier that passive observers could track.
3. Observe on site
A provisioned receiver scans locally and associates the observation with its configured organization and site.
4. Authenticate the report
Receiver credentials and signatures help the backend distinguish trusted receivers from arbitrary scanners.
5. Validate timing and replay
Short windows, drift rules, and duplicate checks limit reuse of captured tokens.
6. Return a decision input
The resulting event is available to customer software through read APIs and signed webhooks.
What it can support

One signal, many customer-owned workflows.

A receiver-backed observation can be useful wherever software needs more than a self-declared check-in.

Attendance and shift records
Job-site and field-service workflows
Education attendance or lab workflows
Presence-aware access decisions
Safety and operational review
What it cannot prove alone

Proximity is not absolute truth.

BLE does not provide exact distance, eliminate every relay attack, establish legal identity, or prove a person's intent. Deployment controls and the customer's decision policy remain essential.

Review the security model
Frequently asked questions

What is physical presence verification?

Physical presence verification is the process of evaluating whether a linked person or device was observed at a trusted physical place during a defined time window. It is different from identity verification, which asks who someone is.

Does NearID use GPS to verify presence?

No. NearID uses rotating Bluetooth Low Energy tokens and organization-managed receivers as the basis for presence verification. Older Android versions may require an operating-system location permission for Bluetooth scanning, but GPS coordinates are not used as NearID presence data.

Does a BLE signal prove an exact distance?

No. Radio signal strength is affected by walls, bodies, device orientation, hardware, and interference. NearID treats receiver observations as a time-bounded proximity signal, not exact distance measurement or GPS-level location assurance.

Does NearID replace attendance, payroll, or access-control software?

No. NearID supplies a physical-presence verification signal through APIs and webhooks. The customer system remains the system of record and decides whether to record attendance, grant access, or trigger another workflow.

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