The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) has made a significant upgrade to the way tax filers access their online accounts, moving away from a basic username and password and toward Selfies with their official identity and other papers.
ID.me, a Virginia-based identity verification company, will be utilized to verify the identities of tax filers using facial recognition technology.
They have declared formally that ID.me would be used as a third-party security measure for accessing IRS accounts in accessing IRS online accounts.
Later this year, here’s how users will be able to access their IRS accounts. All users attempting to login to their accounts through ID.me will be needed to register an account and give a copy of their government-issued identity card. The user will then be requested to snap a selfie using their computer’s webcam or smartphone camera. The picture will then be used as facial recognition if it matches the provided government ID’s.
If ID.me is unable to validate the selfie or marks it as possibly fraudulent, the user may then join a recorded video conversation with an ID.me representative designated as a “Trusted Referee.”
IRS taxpayers expressed worry about the new procedure. Additionally, numerous digital rights organizations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, raise concern about the use of facial matching technologies. They noted that facial technology encompasses more than simply face recognition and verification; it also includes photo clustering, race analysis, and real-time tracking.
Due to the increased number of users worried about the new process, IRS officials stressed that you may continue to file and pay electronically without uploading pictures. They said that a selfie will be needed only if you visit your record online via IRS.gov.
Currently If you attempt to sign in to IRS.gov immediately, you will be prompted to establish an ID.me account. Additionally, it urges users to register an ID.me account immediately, since they will be unable to access their account without one by summer 2022.
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