The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has refused to use the ID.me facial recognition system to verify the identity of taxpayers. The decision was made by the Treasury Department, said Senator Ron Wyden.
This is big: The IRS has notified my office it plans to transition away from using facial recognition verification, as I requested earlier today. While this transition may take time, the administration recognizes that privacy and security are not mutually exclusive. https://t.co/jw7OR7dNo0
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) February 7, 2022
“The Treasury has made the reasonable decision to direct the IRS to stop using the controversial ID.me verification service, as I requested earlier,” Wyden said in a statement.
He added that no one should be forced to use facial recognition to access critical government services.
V statement IRS Commissioner of Internal Revenue Chuck Rettig said the agency is looking to roll out a non-biometric identity verification mechanism.
“The IRS takes taxpayer privacy and security seriously, and we understand the concerns expressed,” he said.
The General Services Administration (GSA) of the United States also suspended using facial recognition systems to verify the identity of citizens using the popular Login.gov login service.
According to Dave Zvenyach, director of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, face-scan technology has too many problems to justify its use as an authentication service.
“The agency is committed not to deploy facial recognition […] or any other technology to receive benefits and public services until a thorough review gives us confidence that we can do it fairly and without harming vulnerable populations, ”he said.
Formerly Ministry of Finance signed a two-year, $86 million contract with ID.me. Under the agreement, from the summer of 2022, US taxpayers must be verified by a facial recognition service when accessing online services.
Recall that in February, a group of US congressmen called on the Internal Revenue Service to abandon plans to introduce a biometric identification system on the agency’s website.
In January, ID.me confirmed the use of a huge facial recognition database.
In June 2021, due to errors in the face scanning system, many Americans lost their unemployment benefits.
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