Privacy groups are demanding transparency following news that ID.me, the facial recognition system used by the IRS and 27 other states, has failed to be completely transparent in how it works. The founder and CEO of ID.me said in a post on Wednesday that the company uses selfies against a database of faces to minimize identity theft. It's counter to the more privacy-preserving ways ID.me has pitched its products in the past and has drawn scrutiny from advocates who argue members of the public compelled to use ID.me for basic government tasks have unclear information. ID.me suggests on its website that it uses face match systems to compare a user's fingerprints to a single document. The kind of facial recognition systems that compare users to a database of faces is called 1:many facial recognition systems. Privacy experts generally agree that many more are susceptible to error and bias. While ID.me has pitched itself primarily on the back of1:1 face match, new comments from the company's founder show, at least in some scenarios, the company does compare some users faces to a database rather than a single document. Millions of Americans are being told by the federal and state governments to sign up for a website to view their taxes or file for unemployment benefits. ID.me told Gizmodo that it uses 1: many face recognition when users first enroll in its system to prevent identity theft, as well as the 1:1 check it users to verify someone's identity. ID.me uses1:1 and 1:many to make sure you are who you are.
The revelation of ID.me's use of 1:many face recognition drew immediate criticisms from a wide range of privacy groups. Fight for the Future released a statement accusing the company of lying about the scope of its facial recognition.
The IRS should stop using facial recognition verification and all government agencies should stop using ID.me, according to Seeley George.
They were not alone. Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union expressed deep concern over a lack of transparency from ID.me, particularly given its close relationship with government services.
The fact that they weren't transparent about this is a sign that we're making up important policies for how Americans relate to their government.
Stanley was concerned that the database ID.me may be used to prevent fraud and that faces may be on it.
TheSTOP, which raised previous concerns over ID.me's relationship with the IRS, echoed Stanley's concerns over transparency and warned the news of ID.me using 1:many.
The risk of racial and gender bias on the platform has been dramatically expanded by this. The IRS shouldn't be giving any company the power to decide how our data is stored.
ID.me said it checks new users against its own database of selfies to make sure they are not attackers or members of organized crime. If a user is flagged by the facial recognition system, they aren't blocked completely but are instead directed to a video chat verification with one of the company's team members.
Criminals would victimize thousands of innocent people per day without this control in place.
The news of ID.me's facial recognition database comes one week after Gizmodo and other outlets wrote about the IRS's decision to mandate ID.me's verification process for anyone trying to access their IRS.com account. Several activist groups have spoken out against the problem.
The issue gained the attention of Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden. Wyden said he was very disturbed that some taxpayers might feel like they need to submit a facial recognition 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299 888-353-1299
Stanley said the transparency issues highlighted are evidence of an overall system in need of a review from top to bottom.
The infrastructure of having a for-profit company doing what is probably an essential government function is a broken way to build this kind of identity proof system.
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