General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe IRS will soon make you use facial recognition to access your taxes online
The agency is using private company ID.me to verify taxpayers identitieshttps://www.theverge.com/2022/1/20/22893057/irs-facial-recognition-taxes-online-idme-identity
The Internal Revenue Service will require people who access and pay their taxes online to enrol in a third-party facial recognition company starting this summer (h/t Krebs on Security). Even those who have already registered on IRS.gov with a username and password will have to provide a government ID, a copy of a utility bill, and a selfie to ID.me, the Virginia-based identity verification company. Youll take a video selfie with whatever webcam or mobile device youre using to sign up, which seems likely to cause problems for people with older hardware or who dont have access to one.
According to the IRS, ID.me is a trusted technology provider of identity verification services. Anyone who already has an ID.me account from another government agency can sign in with those credentials. Brian Krebs created a new ID.me account and wrote in his post that the sign-up process was time-consuming and glitchy. He got stuck about halfway through the process and had to start again from the beginning, then was prompted to join a video call with an ID.me representative with a wait time of nearly three and a half hours.
In its privacy bill of rights, ID.me says it doesnt sell, lead, or trade biometric data to any third parties or derive any profit from the sale, lease or trade of biometric data. It can share information with its partners with users explicit permission, according to its website, and when you register for an ID.me account, you have to accept the companys biometric consent policy. The company collects facial and voice biometrics to verify identity and protect against fraudulent behaviour and to comply with a request from law enforcement or government entities where not prohibited by law. And even if you delete your ID.me account, the company may retain your biometric data for several years, depending on the nature of the data and relevant legal or operational retention needs.
You may remember ID.me from earlier in the pandemic; more than two dozen states use the company to verify people applying for unemployment benefits. Motherboard reported in June 2021 that ID.me failed to identify some applicants and that they had difficulty reaching anyone at the company to remedy their problem. ID.me CEO Blake Hall told The Verge at the time that it uses a system similar to Apples FaceID or the way a TSA agent would compare a passengers face to their ID at an airport.
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ecstatic
(32,567 posts)Two-factor authorization and a picture icon that we have to keep track of.
Id.me is a joke and they have really poor customer service which would cause a lot of people to be locked out of their accounts indefinitely. They've allowed me to use the same password for years now and their two-factor authorization, like the IRS site, is done through text or email also. From what I've read, texting/email isn't the best form of security.
global1
(25,169 posts)1984 here we come. This is the perfect precursor to the authoritarian world they are laying the groundwork for.
They'll be able to track you anywhere with their facial recognition.
Did this idea come from a Tr**p inbed in the IRS?
Next thing you know they'll be coming for your guns!!!
House of Roberts
(5,122 posts)Drown them in paper, if they want to play that game.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,153 posts)jmbar2
(4,832 posts)I'm still trying to track down my lost/stolen final covid stimmy payment. After fruitless efforts to contact IRS, I was directed to this disaster.
I think it was designed by Republicans to administer the final death blow to an admittedly overworked, underfunded, and understaffed IRS.
Here are the steps (from a letter of complaint I wrote to IRS, begging for help):
=====================================
When I tried to log in again to IRS and was told that I had to create a new ID verification account called ID-ME.
1. First you have to enter all of the information you just provided over again.
2. Then, you have to scan and upload front and back shots of your driver's license.
3. Then, you have to send them a selfie video. This happens in several convoluted steps
3a. You submit all your identifying information again.
3b. They send a link to your phone.
3c. You click on that link, and give them permission to access your phone remotely.
3d. Then you take off your glasses, make sure your face is well-lit, and click the button on the website.
3e. They access your phone, and take a biometric scan of your face.
3F. Then you return to the website while they confirm that your video selfie matches your license photo. Oops sorry. Mine didn't match. The lighting must not have been good enough.
4. When the scan doesn't match your driver's license photo, you are instructed to set up a video ID confirmation with one of their helpful representatives.
4a. First you must gather your documents -- driver's license, social security card or some other official document, and a recent utility bill. You can't use scanned versions--you need a real utility bill. Most of mine are online autopays.
4b. When you have all your documents ready, you click to notify them, and they send you links to open a web video conference. Now you are bouncing between their webpage and your phone.
4c. You are put into a queue to speak to a human. In some cases, people wait five-seven HOURS! When they are damned good and ready, they will open a video conference on their side.
4d. Then, you can speak to an ID-ME representative who will ask you all the same questions, and you will hold your documents up to the screen for verification.
I don't have a camera on my main monitor - I use a Smart TV for a monitor with no camera, so I got stuck after doing all the steps above for nothing. My laptop has a camera, but I have to close my main computer and start over on the laptop.
I surrender.
LisaL
(44,962 posts)Give them access of your phone? Thanks but no thanks. I am using H&R block to do my taxes. I hope that means I won't have to do this.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)Ilsa
(61,675 posts)I don't do our taxes any more. Neither does my spouse. We pay someone else to have this headache.
Why is this level of security needed?
LisaL
(44,962 posts)but not you personally (since you are not logging into IRS on-line account yourself).
jmbar2
(4,832 posts)She said it will kill accounting office profitability. They either have to eat all the extra hours, or raise their prices astronomically to cover the extra time and staff required.
She decided not to work this season.