New York-based Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), a non-profit organization advocating against government use of mass surveillance, reportedly warned that the United States Internal Revenue System's new requirement of submitting a selfie to access tax information online will only bring "ruin" to Americans' privacy in the long run.
CBN News said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) Technology and Operations Director Jackie Singh pointed out that the IRS requirement is invasive and that the company the Internal Revenue System partnered with to handle the requirement-ID.me-does not have a good track record in verifying people's identities.
"The IRS has decided that the best way for them to fight fraud is to entrust a third party with live scans of our faces and every sensitive piece of identifying info we have," Singh tweeted last January 20.
"tl;dr (Too long, didn't read) IRS trying to fight fraud so they're forcing Americans who want to get tax data from the IRS online to submit biometric data in the form of a selfie (to a third-party company) to verify themselves. This is very, very bad, and every tech-aware American should fight it," she added in a succeeding tweet.
Singh's latter statement was a retweet of a certain Surveillance Killjoy's post who showed how the IRS requirement looked like based on a report from Gizmodo. Surveillance Killjoy said the IRS requirement included "discriminatory aspects for people w/o necessary tech and problem of handing so much sensitive data to a 3rd party."
The IRS in November announced that it will have a new online identity verification process meant to help taxpayers access self-help tools such as updating one's child tax credit, getting the online payment agreement, and getting an Identity Protection PIN. The new process is also needed to protect taxpayers from identity theft because information will only be provided to whoever has the legal right to it, which in this case would be verified by ID.me's facial recognition software.
"Identity verification is critical to protect taxpayers and their information. The IRS has been working hard to make improvements in this area, and this new verification process is designed to make IRS online applications as secure as possible for people. To help taxpayers and the tax community, we are improving the accessibility of online tools that help families manage their Child Tax Credit, check on their IRS accounts and securely perform other routine tasks online," IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement.
But Singh, who was previously a member of the U.S. Army deployed in Iraq in 2003 and who has an extensive background in defensive cybersecurity, revealed that such was not the case. Singh cited a tweet by Algorithmic Justice League disclosing ID.me's poor credentials.
"@IDme was sold to the federal government as an effective way to access private information, but this may be overstated & result in accessibility issues that bar people from the ability to engage in online activities w/ the IRS, or access unemployment benefits & healthcare," Algorithmic Justice League tweeted Saturday.
Singh also posted screencaps of the ID.me's concerning privacy statement, where it admits it will keep users' records for years after the user deletes his/her account:
We are an ethical steward of your personal information and are committed to supporting your rights: You may destroy your https://t.co/wskkb9w8UG credential and associated data at any time.*
*Asterisk means just kidding lmao https://t.co/uigvLVS1Zj pic.twitter.com/tF9MDUESCv
"” Jackie? (@hackingbutlegal) January 20, 2022
Bloomberg Businesweek reported that ID.me Co-Founder Blake Hall, a "decorated Army Ranger" from a "family with a proud military tradition," is known to have been involved in estimating an unemployment fraud of $400 billion. While ID.me users, which are mostly government offices, have raised "a log of complaints" for its verification system.
"Issues ranging from a transgender person being blocked from accessing benefits because the gender on their driver's license didn't match their passport to an applicant who went through ID.me's verification process only to find their claim still on hold six weeks later," the report said.
