Well, that didn’t last long. Not even two weeks after word got out that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would soon require anyone filing taxes through the agency website to supply a photo identification via ID.me, the Treasury Department appears to have read the very discomforted room and adjusted accordingly. Speaking with Bloomberg over the weekend, a spokesperson confirmed that both the Treasury Department and IRS are backpedaling on their ID.me “selfie” plans, while noting (with what we assume was a bit of shade) that “the lack of funding for IRS modernization” still prevents them from designing appropriately secure software in-house, and thus will still likely rely on some kind of third-party contract.
Virtually no one would argue against digital safeguards for such sensitive data as taxpayer filings, but that said, calling upon a third-party company like ID.me to implement notoriously controversial and often unreliable technology like facial recognition can’t be the only solution available. Here’s to hoping whatever the Treasury Department announces next will be a step in the right direction.
