ID.me does use facial recognition to match against databases, CEO admits

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

ID.me uses a powerful facial recognition technique to match faces against a larger database, despite earlier claims to the contrary.

The company uses a technique called one-to-many face matching in which a target face is compared against a database of other known faces to find possible matches.

A press release issued by the company just days ago said the company only used one-to-one face matching, which is a less powerful form of facial recognition.

In one-to-one matching, a target face is compared with images of the same face to determine if they match. He said that the company does not use a lot of facial recognition.

In the new comments, Hall admitted that the previous statement was false and said the discrepancy was due to a reluctance to give details about operational practice that could be exploited by criminals.

ID.me uses selfies tied to government programs to prevent identity thieves and members of organized crime from stealing the identities of innocent victims. Criminals use information about our protections to harm innocent people.

Critics of the company are not likely to be reassured by the latest backtrack over the nature of the technology used by ID.me. People trying to sign up for unemployment benefits were put on hold after ID.me failed to identify them correctly, with some suggesting that people of color were more likely to be mis identified.

Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the new IRS verification program puts a private company between people and the government services they need.