Why DHS RIVTD Matters, and What to Ask Your Liveness Vendor

When it comes to remote identity verification, there’s no room for guesswork. As digital onboarding and remote access continue to expand across industries, Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) has become mission-critical. But with dozens of vendors claiming top-tier security and user experience, how can you separate marketing claims from measurable reality? Enter the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Remote Identity Validation Technology Demonstration (DHS RIVTD)—one of the industry’s most rigorous and transparent tests of biometric PAD performance in real-world conditions.

Evaluating PAD Technology

The DHS RIVTD program evaluates how well PAD systems detect presentation attacks like photos, digital displays, and masks, while maintaining a seamless user experience. Crucially, it tests both active and passive PAD solutions:

• Active PAD: Requires users to blink, turn their heads, or follow prompts, or uses visual cues such as blinking lights—adding time and user friction.
• Passive PAD: Runs silently in the background, with no additional user action.

This matters, especially for sectors like financial services, government, healthcare, and travel, where user accessibility simply cannot be compromised.

Paravision’s Elite Performance

In the 2025 DHS RIVTD Track 3, Paravision (under the alias P8) delivered a powerful result:

• Lowest Combined Error Rate: With a BPCER of 0.3% and APCER of 3.3%, Paravision achieved the best overall accuracy among all test participants, nearly 2.5x better than the second-place system.
• Fastest Processing Time: Averaging under 1 second, Paravision Liveness Detection outperformed active systems that took up to 40 seconds to complete a check.
• Inclusive Performance: Unlike many active systems that showed increased error rates for older users, Paravision’s passive liveness performed consistently across all tested demographic groups.

What to Ask Your PAD Provider

If you’re evaluating biometric security solutions, DHS RIVTD test provides a great independent benchmark to guide your decision. Here are three questions worth asking your vendor:

• Have you participated in DHS RIVTD? If not, why not? It is the most advanced real-world evaluation for liveness available in the market.
• What are your BPCER & APCER scores & processing times? These numbers matter. Ask for specifics, not just vague assurances.
• Is your system passive or active? User convenience is as important as security. The best systems deliver both.

A Final Word

With the latest generation of Identity AI, organizations no longer need to trade usability for security. As proven in DHS testing, Paravision delivers both—making it the trusted choice for organizations that take fraud prevention and user experience seriously. Learn more at paravision.ai/liveness.