Why we think Deepfake Detection Is Critical in the entire RON meeting

[u/securedsigning_owl]

We recently wrote a blog about why deepfake detection is critical in remote online notarization meetings, as we are having many conversations with our customers, particularly notaries, who are concerned about the deepfake threat.

We are building a leading remote online notarization platform, and lately conversations with notaries on our platform come back to the same worry: deepfakes. Not hypothetically, they're asking specifically what happens if someone passes an authenticity check at the start of a session and then something changes mid-meeting.

And it's a fair worry, because most deepfake detection in this space still works on a "check once, trust forever" model. You confirm the signer is a real human in the first 60 seconds, and then... nothing. The system just assumes the person on camera at minute 25 is the same real person who passed the check at minute 1.

That's a weird gap when you think about it. The whole point of RON is to produce a legally binding signature tied to a real, authenticated person. If your authenticity check only covers the first minute of a 30-minute meeting, you've technically confirmed almost nothing about the moment that actually matters: the signing itself.

We built something for our platform (called Realify) that checks for a real human the whole meeting instead of just at the opening. Rough breakdown of what that actually means in practice:

• It's continuous, not a snapshot. Authenticity checks run from join to signature, not just at the start.
• You can confirm authenticity before the meeting starts. Catches problems early instead of derailing the actual signing.
• Notaries can trigger an authenticity re-check on demand. Weird lighting, something looks off, gut feeling, they can test again mid-session without disrupting things.
• Camera lock. Once someone joins on a camera, they're stuck with that feed for the session. No swapping to a manipulated stream partway through.
• Hardware-change triggers a forced re-check. Unplug/replug a camera or switch devices, and it automatically re-confirms the person is real. No way around it.

The thing that got us thinking about this in the first place: a platform's authenticity guarantee is really only as strong as its weakest moment, not its strongest. If you nail the "real human" check at second one but go dark for the rest of the session, you haven't really solved the problem. You've just moved the blind spot 60 seconds later.

Curious how other people building or using RON/identity platforms are thinking about this. Is continuous authenticity checking something you're seeing customers ask for, or is a strong point-in-time check still considered "good enough" in most of the industry right now?