# Watchlist

The Watchlist module screens the user's identity against sources of sanctions, Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) databases, and adverse media, returning any matches found across the configured sources.

## Integrations

:white_check_mark: Web | :white_check_mark: iOS | :white_check_mark: Android

## How It Works

Watchlist is a processing module, so it runs after user data has been collected earlier in the session. It needs a name and date of birth to perform a search, and it can source these from either the [Forms and Data Entry](https://developer.incode.com/docs/forms-and-data-entry) module (using the predefined questions "What is your name?" and "What is your date of birth?") or from an [ID Capture](https://developer.incode.com/docs/id-capture) module followed by [ID Validation](https://developer.incode.com/docs/id-validation-module). If both sources are present, data collected through Forms takes priority over data extracted from the ID.

When the module runs, it submits the collected name and date of birth to the configured watchlist sources and returns the results. Watchlist matches on first name and last name only; middle names are not processed. The search can be scoped in several ways:

- Narrowed by the customer's birth year, to reduce false positives on common names.
- Filtered by one or more countries of operation, so results are limited to entities tied to those countries by nationality or residence. Country filtering does not apply to entities on sanction lists, entities with adverse media mentions only, or entities with no country assigned. These always appear regardless of the country filter.
- Restricted to specific watchlist categories (such as sanctions, PEP classes, fitness-probity, or FATF-aligned adverse media categories), or to a defined search profile. Watchlist categories and search profile are mutually exclusive; only configure one or the other.
- Tuned for match strictness using a fuzziness value, where lower values require closer matches to the supplied name and higher values allow looser matching.

The module can also subscribe to ongoing updates for a search. When subscribed, Incode sends a notification to a configured webhook whenever the underlying watchlist data for that search changes, so downstream systems can retrieve the updated result. For setup instructions, see [Global Watchlist Webhook](https://developer.incode.com/docs/global-watchlists-webhook).

## Use Watchlist

For instructions on implementing and configuring ID Capture on each supported platform, use the following pages:

- [Watchlist (Dashboard)](https://developer.incode.com/docs/watchlist-dashboard)
- [Watchlist (iOS)](https://developer.incode.com/docs/watchlist-ios)
- [Watchlist (Android)](https://developer.incode.com/docs/watchlist-android)
- [Watchlist (Web SDK)](https://developer.incode.com/docs/watchlist-web-sdk)

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