Face clock-in
Let staff clock in by face at the kiosk, on the basis your organisation chooses, with a fallback that always works. Never used for visitors.
Agoo is in early access. This page describes the feature as it ships to early-access organisations; screens are illustrative.
Face clock-in lets an employee clock in by looking at the kiosk instead of typing a PIN or finding a card. It's included on Growth, Pro and Enterprise.
Face data is sensitive. Your organisation is the data controller and decides, under the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), whether and how to use it. Some rules are fixed by Agoo and can't be changed.
The fixed rules
- Staff only. Face matching is for staff attendance. It is never used on visitors, contractors, delivery riders or anyone else at the kiosk.
- Off until you turn it on, and only after you've published a notice that tells employees what it involves.
- Templates never leave the kiosk. The face template is created and stored on the kiosk, encrypted. Agoo's servers never receive it, or any face image. They record only which kiosks a person is enrolled on, and each punch's method and match result.
- Nobody is ever unable to record their attendance. If face matching fails (an injury, poor light, a new pair of glasses), or someone can't use face, the kiosk offers a fallback, even when your organisation has switched PIN off: their PIN, staff QR or card, or a supervisor-assisted punch.
Choose your basis
When you switch face clock-in on, you publish a notice and choose its basis. You can change it later by publishing a new version.
| Basis | What it means |
|---|---|
| Required by the organisation | Your organisation requires face clock-in under its legal basis: the employment contract, a legal obligation, or its legitimate interests (Act 843, section 37(3)). Each employee acknowledges the notice. Enrolment goes ahead whether or not they have acknowledged it yet; they can't opt out. |
| Employee consent | Only employees who consent are enrolled. Without consent, face isn't offered to them at the kiosk. They can withdraw consent at any time. |
Required is the default when you switch face on. Agoo records each notice version with its wording, basis and date, and each acknowledgement or consent with when and how it was given. Console → Attendance lists the employees who haven't acknowledged the current notice yet.
Do a DPIA first
The terms ask you to complete a data protection impact assessment before you use face matching. Agoo provides a template in Console → Settings → Data & privacy. Record your basis there too.
How it works
- The employee looks at the kiosk camera.
- The kiosk compares their face with the templates stored on that kiosk and, on a match, clocks them in. The punch records the method
faceand that it matched. - If there's no confident match, the kiosk asks for their PIN (or their QR or card). Agoo never guesses.
A face template is a set of measurements made from the photo, not the photo itself. It can only be used for matching at clock-in.
When face matching fails
A punch made through the fallback after a failed match (PIN, QR, card, or a supervisor confirming who it is) is marked face not verified. The fallback is only offered after a failed face match on that kiosk, or to someone face isn't available for; it is never a free choice, even when PIN is otherwise switched off.
- It appears in the review queue in Console → Attendance, where a supervisor accepts it or rejects it. A rejected punch doesn't count.
- The daily attendance summary counts these punches, and how many still await review.
- You can also require a supervisor to approve the fallback at the kiosk, on the spot. The punch is then already reviewed.
Deleting templates
Agoo tells every kiosk to delete templates, and records when each kiosk confirms:
- When someone leaves: deactivating them in Console → People.
- When an employee withdraws consent (consent basis), in the Workspace app or by asking HR.
- When you change the basis to consent: templates of employees who haven't consented.
- When you switch face clock-in off for a site or the organisation.
Punches already recorded are kept for your attendance retention. Every notice, acknowledgement, consent, withdrawal, enrolment and deletion is written to the audit trail.
Talk to your staff first
Explain why you're using face clock-in, what the kiosk stores and where, and that the kiosk always offers a fallback. Uptake is better when people understand it.
Questions employees ask
No. Templates stay encrypted on the kiosk and can't be viewed, downloaded or exported by anyone, including admins and Ardent staff.
No. It's used only to clock you in at your organisation's kiosks. It's never used to identify visitors, never shared with other organisations and never used to train AI models.
The kiosk asks for your PIN. Glasses, a new haircut or poor lighting can affect matching; you can re-enrol at any time.
That depends on the basis your organisation chose, which the notice tells you. With consent, yes: you can decline or withdraw at any time. When your organisation requires it, you can raise concerns with your employer, who is responsible for that decision under Act 843.