.svg)
When you sign up for Applause, as with any other software tool, there’s a certain amount of information we need about your business to make everything work as it should.
Because the Applause platform includes financial services functionality offered in partnership with a regulated financial institution, one of the pieces of information we need is your social security number (SSN).
If you’re wondering why Applause needs your SSN, here’s the short version:
- In addition to being a performance management platform, Applause is also a fintech company (like Venmo, Stripe, PayPal, or Square) that facilitates the movement of funds.
- As a result, we’re subject to federal banking regulations that require us to verify the identity of certain individuals associated with your business.
- This verification process is called KYC/KYB, the same one you likely went through to set up your businesses' online payment processing tool.
In this article, we’ll explain why we need your SSN and how we keep this information safe.
Why Applause needs your SSN
Applause is the most efficient and reliable way to turn every technician on your team into a top performer. Part of what makes Applause work so well is Scorecards, which automatically tracks technician performance in real-time across 50+ metrics.
Tracking performance keeps your people accountable. But that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Incentives are the real key to unlocking long-term, sustainable performance improvement at scale.
Numerous time-tested behavioral, economic, and psychological studies confirm that when you tie immediate rewards to individual performance, you positively influence behavior. While accurate performance tracking is important, it’s timely recognition and incentives that really drive change.
That’s why Applause helps you send bonuses, incentives, and payouts to your technicians instantly, right in the app.
For your techs, nothing feels better than watching tips and incentives stack up in their digital wallet, knowing they can cash out whenever they want. It’s the reason technicians who use Applause get 7x as many 5-star reviews as those who don’t.
But because we facilitate money movement, we’re subject to stricter regulations than other software tools you may be using. Applause has the capabilities to function as a fintech company, so we are beholden to federal banking regulations.
Applause’s legal obligation (KYC/KYB)
When money moves, U.S. financial regulations require identity verification to help prevent fraud, money laundering, and other abuse. This identity verification requirement is called KYC/KYB, or Know Your Customer/Know Your Business.
KYC (Know Your Customer)
KYC is the process of verifying an individual’s identity.
For U.S. individuals, this typically includes:
- Full legal name
- Date of birth
- Address
- Social Security Number
This information is used only to confirm identity, not for credit checks.
KYB (Know Your Business)
KYB verifies the business itself and the people who control it. It includes:
- Confirming the business is legitimate and registered
- Identifying beneficial owners (25%+ ownership)
- Identifying a control person with management authority
Every business that moves money is required to complete KYB. In addition to Applause, your bank, payroll provider, and point of sale (POS) system providers have to comply with KYB.
FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, sets the rules that require banks and payments providers to verify the real people behind a business account.
It’s their way of making sure a business entity is legitimate and safe to do business with.
Who has to provide their SSN?
Only a handful of people on your side need to provide an SSN.
Verification is tied to two roles commonly required in business identity checks:
- Beneficial owners: anyone who owns 25% or more of the company
- A control person (“controller”): one person with significant responsibility to manage or direct the company
That “control person” does not have to be an owner. If nobody owns 25%+, you can generally list any senior leader with day-to-day management authority as the controller.
What does Applause do with your SSN?
Applause does one thing and one thing only with your SSN: complete legally required identity verification. That’s it.
Here’s exactly what happens with your SSN:
- Your SSN is encrypted and transmitted to Applause’s regulated compliance and identity verification partners
- It is used solely to verify identity as part of federal KYC/KYB requirements tied to anti-money-laundering regulations.
- Following verification, the SSN is securely purged in accordance with our data-retention policies.
- Applause does not retain full SSNs in its core application systems and does not make them accessible to Applause personnel. Therefore, we never see or have access to your SSN at any time.
Here are a few things we don’t do with your SSN:
- We don’t perform credit checks
- We don’t impact your credit score
- We do not view or access your SSN (that includes both the Applause team as well as your internal company admins, managers, other users, etc.)
- We do not reuse it for analytics, reporting, or any other purpose. (Again, identity verification only.)
- We do not store SSNs in our core application database
How Applause keeps your information safe
All SSNs are encrypted in transit and at rest, securely handled by our compliance team, and purged once verification is complete.
Specifically:
- Data at rest is encrypted using AES-256, with additional encryption applied to sensitive values.
- Data in transit is always protected using industry-standard TLS encryption.
- We only store the last four digits of your SSN (temporarily)
Unlock service-led growth with Applause
Signing up for Applause requires the same type of information you’ve already provided to other money-movement platforms like Venmo, PayPal, Stripe, Square, and others.
That’s because Applause isn’t just a performance tracking tool or a review collection platform. It enables real financial activity: bonuses, incentives, and payouts tied to technician performance. Federal banking regulations require identity verification for that activity, and providing an SSN is part of that process.
The SSN is used once, solely for verification, handled securely by our compliance partners, and then purged. It is not stored long-term in the Applause system, it's never visible to your team, and it's never used for anything beyond meeting regulatory requirements.
If you have additional questions, reach out to our team.
.webp)
