Although the tax agency beefed up its privacy protections after its use of the company ID.me and face recognition technology caused concern for members of Congress and advocacy groups in 2022, the IRS isn’t evaluating ID.me’s work or independently verifying performance data, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
That means that the IRS is “relying on ID.me’s own assessments of its solutions’ performance,” reads the new report, which includes recommendations for IRS.
Millions of taxpayers go through the company’s identity checks annually to get to IRS applications deemed sensitive enough to require identity proofing, like individual online accounts with information like tax records or balances.
Users logged into IRS apps requiring ID.me over 150 million times between 2021 and 2024, according to the report. People using the program can either go through a self service option, which involves submitting a selfie and photo of an ID to be matched against each other, or join a video call with a live agent.
The tax agency promised to add a government-run option following backlash in 2022, but ID.me is still the only option for taxpayers wanting to access dozens of IRS applications online where stronger security controls are required.
In addition to performance checks, the IRS wasn’t able to show Congress’ watchdog that it had established measurable goals or performance objectives for its identity proofing program, of which ID.me ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
