IRS To Require Facial Recognition to Verify Identity Online

January 31, 2022

The IRS plans to require taxpayers to submit to facial recognition identification in order to access tax records online. The IRS’s expansion of the government’s use of facial recognition have sparked controversy. ID.me, the company that will conduct the facial matching for the IRS, initially claimed that only 1:1 matching is used. The company later backtracked these claims, admitting that they do use 1:many in certain circumstances. The IRS conducted a privacy impact assessment of the use of the ID.me service that failed to address the use of 1:many facial recognition and lacks a meaningful assessment of using facial recognition generally. EPIC is working with other public interest organizations to push back against the use of privacy-invasive facial recognition technology on US taxpayers.

Support Our Work

EPIC's work is funded by the support of individuals like you, who allow us to continue to protect privacy, open government, and democratic values in the information age.

Donate