FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Taxpayers, lawmakers and digital privacy advocates rebelled earlier this year when the IRS announced plans to require taxpayers to upload selfies if they wanted online access to their tax records. The selfies were needed by an identity verification service, ID.me, to compare with applicants’ government-issued ID photos, the IRS said.
Following an outcry from both sides of the political spectrum, the IRS responded by making the selfie uploads optional and requiring the service, ID.me, to automatically delete them once the verification process is complete.
Yet dozens of states, including Florida, that contracted with ID.me to conduct identify verification of applicants for unemployment benefits, have not followed the IRS’ lead and continue to require applicants to upload selfies that remain on ID.me’s servers for years unless users specifically ask for them to be deleted.
