The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Treasury Department are exploring alternative solutions to ID.me, a controversial facial recognition software. A possible change in the service was not cited by the agencies, along with any privacy concerns.
Lawmakers criticize ID.me
According to the Daily Mail, one of the most ambitious facial recognition software expansions made by the US government is the $86 million partnership between the Internal Revenue Service and ID.me, announced in November. However, a number of legislators have expressed concern about the measure, claiming that the software is intrusive and inaccurate.
Representative Ted Lieu posted on Twitter, saying that the Internal Revenue Service made a horrible idea in the aspect, and it will further erode Americans’ right to privacy. Furthermore, he also noted that facial recognition is less accurate for people with darker skin tones. The IRS must rescind this Big Brother strategy as soon as possible.
Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, expressed his displeasure with the potential of taxpayers being subjected to facial recognition technology on Twitter.
‘I’m very disturbed that Americans may have to submit to a facial recognition system, wait on hold for hours, or both, to access personal data on the IRS website,’ said Wyden on his Twitter account, as quoted in the report.
Taxpayers can continue to file their returns in the traditional manner, but by the summer, they may be required to transmit recordings of their faces to ID.me in order to verify their identities.
ID.me facial recognition
With the new system, the US Internal Revenue Service will require users to enter their face to access their online accounts this summer.
As reported by PC Mag, currently, taxpayers can log in to IRS.gov to view their tax history, but that will end later in the year, according to KrebsonSecurity. Taxpayers will need a lot of personal data to prove their identity by mid-2022 when the IRS switches to ID.me’s online verification service.
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