Verified Participants
How Terac verifies the people in its panel, and how you can require specific verified credentials for your study.
Every participant on Terac is a member of the panel who has completed onboarding. Verification is what lets you trust that an applicant is a real, distinct person, and optionally that they meet specific verified criteria before they can apply.
Attestations
An attestation is a verified badge on a participant's profile. It proves the participant has cleared a specific check. Attestations are earned once and reused across every opportunity, so participants are not re-verified for each study.
| Attestation | What it proves |
|---|---|
| Government ID | The participant verified a government-issued ID with a face match. This is the strongest identity signal and most opportunities require it. |
| Phone | The participant confirmed a phone number via a one-time SMS code. |
| Professional / social profile | The participant connected a real professional or social account (such as LinkedIn). |
Identity verification is handled by a dedicated third-party verification partner. Terac does not store images of participants' ID documents. For the participant-side flow, see Understanding Attestations.
Requiring Verified Accounts for Your Study
In the Audience step of the builder you can require connected accounts: an applicant must link a real LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, or Microsoft account before they can apply. Use LinkedIn when professional authenticity matters, or a work identity provider when you need applicants tied to a real workplace.
Each requirement narrows your eligible pool, so only require what your study genuinely needs. Recruitment respects the requirement automatically: applicants who have not connected the account cannot start your study, and there is nothing further to check at review time.
Government ID and phone verification are handled by Terac during panel onboarding rather than set per study. If your study needs a specific verification standard, raise it during the feasibility check so the audience is scoped to it.
Required accounts are hard requirements applied before a participant can apply. They differ from screening questions, which qualify participants on judged answers during the application flow.
Preventing Duplicate Participation
Identity verification also underpins one-person-one-account integrity. To keep a single participant from entering the same study twice, rely on the platform's participation controls rather than trying to detect duplicates yourself after the fact. See Submissions for how participation is tracked.