IRS will end use of facial recognition after widespread privacy concerns
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Internal Revenue Service has announced that it will transition away from the use of third-party facial recognition services for the verification of taxpayers' identities, effectively ending a contract with facial recognition company ID.me that had received widespread criticism.
The announcement was made in a press release published by the agency today. It follows weeks of intense public criticism after the agency announced in January that by summer 2022, ID.me would be the only way for taxpayers to log in when managing tax accounts online, requiring that all users upload a selfie to access their account at irs.gov.
The IRS takes taxpayer privacy and security seriously, and we understand the concerns that have been raised," said IRS...