I had to do the same thing when I signed up a while ago. I thought they'd just scan it and trash it, but apparently not... their privacy policy says they do collect the photograph, national ID info, etc. And then they'll do their best to protect it: https://wise.com/gb/legal/global-privacy-policy-en
> Additional information you give us for security, identification and verification purposes may include your [...], photograph, [...], proof of residency, passport and/or National ID. If you fail to provide any of this information, it might affect our ability to provide our Services to you.
> As part of our identity verification process we collect, use and store biometric data, namely: We extract face scan information from photos and videos [...]. We will retain biometric data for the period necessary to complete the identity verification process, and in any case no longer than 1 year after collection, unless required by law or legal process to keep it longer.
I'm not sure if that same method is used internationally.
But yeah, it's an overall risk for sure. You'd hope they'd be a bit more cautious being a financial institution and such, but you never know. If it gets leaked, it'd probably be very hard to deal with a situation like this internationally.
> Additional information you give us for security, identification and verification purposes may include your [...], photograph, [...], proof of residency, passport and/or National ID. If you fail to provide any of this information, it might affect our ability to provide our Services to you.
> As part of our identity verification process we collect, use and store biometric data, namely: We extract face scan information from photos and videos [...]. We will retain biometric data for the period necessary to complete the identity verification process, and in any case no longer than 1 year after collection, unless required by law or legal process to keep it longer.
Their US Facial Scan privacy policy has a bit more detail, and apparently they outsource that to a company called Onfido (https://onfido.com/): https://wise.com/us/legal/facial-scan-notice
I'm not sure if that same method is used internationally.
But yeah, it's an overall risk for sure. You'd hope they'd be a bit more cautious being a financial institution and such, but you never know. If it gets leaked, it'd probably be very hard to deal with a situation like this internationally.