Sens. Wyden, Booker, Warren Urge Department of Labor to Help States Abandon ID.me

February 15, 2022

In a letter to the Department of Labor, Senators Ron Wyden, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren urged the agency to help state unemployment agencies abandon flawed identity verification company ID.me. The letter states that “the infrastructure that powers digital identity, particularly when used to access government websites, should be run by the government, and certainly not a company with a track record of misleading the public.” The Senators call for the Dep’t of Labor and General Services Administration to make Login.gov, the federally run identity verification service, available to state governments, and to avoid the use of facial recognition for access to government benefits and services. 

Recently, an EPIC-led coalition of privacy and civil liberties groups urged federal and state agencies to end the use of ID.me and facial recognition. IRS dropped its plan to use ID.me after criticism from members of CongressEPIC, and many others. The company came under fire for forcing individuals to submit to intrusive facial recognition verification, subjecting people to long wait times for verification, and misleading the public. Individuals can join organizations pushing back against the use of face verification by signing this petition to Dump ID.me.

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