IRS is exploring alternatives to selfie verification with ID.me

The Internal Revenue Service is reviewing alternatives to ID.me, the controversial authentication system already used by states and other federal agencies, following a public outcry over the idea that taxpayers will need to take selfies to access their IRS.gov accounts.

A Treasury official told CBS MoneyWatch that the agency was considering software alternatives.

The IRS announced in November its partnership with ID.me, under which taxpayers will need to register with the company to access their IRS.gov accounts to view their tax history or access their tax records. copies. The deal gained little control until this month when security investigator Brian Krebs documented his identity verification process by uploading documents, trying to take a selfie and connecting with an agent via video chat.

“Big Brother Tactics”

Legislators and civil liberties groups criticized the process as invasive.

“This is a very, very bad idea of ​​the IRS. It will further undermine American privacy,” said Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California. he said on Twitter. “The tax authorities need to reverse this Big Brother tactic NOW.”

Sen. Ron Weiden, a Democrat representing Oregon, said he was “very upset” by the development.

In a statement, a Finance Ministry spokesman reiterated that ID.me accounts would not be required for tax returns and said the agency was trying to balance accessibility by defending the service from criminals.

“Lack of funding to modernize IRS IT has made it impossible for the IRS to invest in state-of-the-art technology. which is compatible with the standards of the National Institute of Security Technology and is used by many services throughout the government, “the spokesman said.

Uncontrollable

Proponents of civil rights have long argued that face recognition is less accurate for people with darker skin than for people with lighter skin. Face-Match technology led to the unjust arrest of a man for shoplifting and that members of Congress mistakenly matched a mugshot database.

“Whether or not the IRS needs a new way of verifying identity should not use face recognition, especially when there is a lack of regulation regarding the use of face images and other biometric data,” said Jeramie Scott, Senior Advisor at Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Especially when … they plan to outsource this identity to a third company that will now also collect personal information, thus creating another target for the loss of your information,” he said.

Once a user has registered with ID.me, the company should share their information with law enforcement, if requested, in accordance with the Surveillance Technology Project or STOP. While users can revoke ID.me access to their data, the software must maintain it for years to protect itself from fraud, putting people at risk of identity theft.

EPIC, STOP, Fight For The Future and three other civil rights groups have launched a petition asking the IRS to rescind the contract. The petition has already received more than 1,000 signatures, according to Fight For The Future.

ID.me Founder and CEO Blake Hall, maintains that ID.me has high security standards that make Internet access safer and more accessible to taxpayers than previous IRS methods, which typically required users to have a credit report. Hall said ID.me has stopped “tens of thousands” of alleged attacks on the IRS that could result in the theft of taxpayers’ identities.

“What we are doing is simply the digital equivalent of what every American does to open a bank account,” Hall said.

A company representative said that 9 out of 10 users can successfully self-verify with ID.me and that the process takes 5 minutes on average.

However, due to the ubiquity of ID.me, this unsuccessful 10% corresponds to a large number of people. Since last year, when ID.me contracted with more than half of the US states to manage unemployment benefits, there have been countless complaints from people whose funds were put on hold incorrectly or could not be verified because they did not have the right documents. , could not access the internet or for other reasons.