Selfies at ID.me for IRS logon and some states

The following US analytics site is very interesting. It shows live data on the numbers of people visiting the agency websites and what pages they are visiting. Even shows 0.9% of current visitors to the site are from the UK (that figure was 1.43% earlier today when I looked but that will have been because it was mostly at night in the USA)

https://analytics.usa.gov/treasury/
 
My DW has her pension thru Pension Guaranty and she went online to retrieve her 1099r yesterday. She had to take a picture of the front and back of her Drivers license then she got a text to enter and then they had to verify the phone number, and finally she got an ID number to keep if she got locked or had to change some info. Mabey she won't have to go thru this crap again but it is the Gubment after all.
 
sengsational said:
I'm sure the IRS make it very painful to not register with this 3rd party. But probably not impossible. At least for a while. I'll make my decision to join when the pain of not joining is higher than the pain of doing it the old/alternative way.

I wonder how many people actually read the terms. According to Brian Krebs, the privacy policy says you can delete your biometric data, but when he tried, he was led to a process to delete his account. So certainly if you have an active account, your biometric data is in the juicy hacker target at id.me. Even if you delete your account, in the fine print, they say they company can keep your biometric data for seven and a half years. I'm not sure if that's a correct interpretation or not, and I don't want to be one of those people who spend 10 minutes reading the first 3 links on Google results, then proclaim to know "the truth" :LOL: All I can say is I won't be part of the massive id.me breach unless they make it too painful to not join, which hasn't happened yet. After all, if the IRS can mail me a letter, I can also mail them a letter, right? That's what I've been doing 'forever'.
Click to expand...

Good stuff.
Thanks

South Park had an episode relating to what happened if you didn't read the terms of service when using an Apple product.
Can't say any more than that :)
 
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ID.me -- My funny story

My wife leaves all of the financial stuff to me. She dreads our twice a year financial review.

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to confirm the estimated tax payments paid through IRS Direct. I logged into my account and only two are listed. I trying logging into my wife's account and I'm directed to ID.me.

It says to take a photo of her driver's license front & back -- I can do that. Next step is to upload a selfie. My wife hates her photo taken and besides she's asleep. I toyed with the idea of taking a pic while she was asleep -- only for about 15 seconds. The next morning I explained I needed a photo, it might be a long time before the ID.me is completed.
 
I just saw an article that says they are scrapping the Face ID due to push back. Good.
 
Venturer said:
My DW has her pension thru Pension Guaranty and she went online to retrieve her 1099r yesterday. She had to take a picture of the front and back of her Drivers license then she got a text to enter and then they had to verify the phone number, and finally she got an ID number to keep if she got locked or had to change some info. Mabey she won't have to go thru this crap again but it is the Gubment after all.
Click to expand...
Well, at least it sounds like someone was able to download their 1099r from PBGC. I went through the whole upload driver license, etc. but it wouldn't verify my mobile phone number (Verizon) so I had to wait for a code to be mailed. After all that I can sign into login.gov but it fails to let me into my PBGC account. They've been a pain every year with resetting passwords, but this takes the cake. :mad:
 
This is good news. I’m not sure if I will update my IRS account but I definitely wouldn’t have if the selfie business stuck.
 
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I wonder what 2FA they will introduce. To log onto my recently created IRS account requires an authentication code from an app on my phone.
 
Not sure what the hoopla is all about. Fido already uses voice recognition, USSA app uses fingerprint recognition. Facial recognition is just another form of biometrics for authentication. Something you have (device/token), Something you know (username/password) and Something you are (.biometrics)
 
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Lawrencewendall said:
Not sure what the hoopla is all about. Fido already uses voice recognition, USSA app uses fingerprint recognition. Facial recognition is just another form of biometrics for authentication. Something you have (device/token), Something you know (username/password) and Something you are (.biometrics)
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It would be difficult to use voice or fingerprint recognition to track people in public places. Facial recogniton in public places? Certain countries are already doing that now.
 
Turbo29 said:
It would be difficult to use voice or fingerprint recognition to track people in public places. Facial recogniton in public places? Certain countries are already doing that now.
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Google already tracks your movements via your phone.
 
Turbo29 said:
Let's throw gasoline on the fire and make it even worse.
Click to expand...

I would rather trust gov than private industry for privacy. Think LexusNexus/Google/FB vs EO 12333. I AM a little bias as I spent 35 in Intel.:D

I'd be the first to admit that gov has contracted out to private industry to do things the gov can't do under the EO but eventually those shenanigans come to light.
 
Lawrencewendall said:
I would rather trust gov than private industry for privacy. Think LexusNexus/Google/FB vs EO 12333. I AM a little bias as I spent 35 in Intel.:D

I'd be the first to admit that gov has contracted out to private industry to do things the gov can't do under the EO but eventually those shenanigans come to light.
Click to expand...

I'll give you my perspective: Google and the others are definitely a concern. So is the government. They may have the best intentions for the use of the facial images but once they have them they can be misused.

The father of my best friend in high school / college was placed in a concentration camp because, although he was a US citizen, he was of Japanese ancestry. The information the government used to round him and other Japanese-Americans up was obtained in part from the 1940 census.
 
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Turbo29 said:
I'll give you my perspective: Google and the others are definitely a concern. So is the government. They may have the best intentions for the use of the facial images but once they have them they can be misused.

The father of my best friend in high school / college was placed in a concentration camp because, although he was a US citizen, he was of Japanese ancestry. The information the government used to round him and other Japanese-Americans up was obtained in part from the 1940 census.
Click to expand...

You're talking about 80 years ago laws. Not to say it can't happen again but that's why we have elections. One gets what they elect.
 
Annoyed that I had to do ID.me to make an estimated tax payment, and now annoyed they are getting rid of it after I did that. They better be making ID.me delete all the data they gathered but I bet they are not...
 
Lawrencewendall said:
You're talking about 80 years ago laws. Not to say it can't happen again but that's why we have elections. One gets what they elect.
Click to expand...


It was Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of the most popular presidents ever, that issued executive order 9066. I'd be willing to bet human nature hasn't changed at all in 80 years.

As far as the law, there was a law in place (as there is now) prohibiting the use of census information. That law was changed to permit the use of that information to round up the Japanese-Americans, just as any law protecting privacy now could be changed (or ignored) in an instant. Better they don't have the facial images in the first place.
 
Turbo29 said:
It was Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of the most popular presidents ever, that issued executive order 9066. I'd be willing to bet human nature hasn't changed at all in 80 years.

As far as the law, there was a law in place (as there is now) prohibiting the use of census information. That law was changed to permit the use of that information to round up the Japanese-Americans, just as any law protecting privacy now could be changed (or ignored) in an instant. Better they don't have the facial images in the first place.
Click to expand...

IIRC they didn't change anything, the federal government just ignored it.
 
ncbill said:
IIRC they didn't change anything, the federal government just ignored it.
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You may be right. This article however, Secret use of census info helped send Japanese Americans to internment camps in WWII, states, "Starting in March 1942, standard confidentiality protections were suspended under the Second War Powers Act. Confidentiality provisions tied to census data were reinstated in 1947."

In any case, it shows how empty promises of confidentiality and privacy can be.

The YouTube video embedded in the article is interesting but heavily edited. The whole video is even more interesting and shows how they attempted to justify it.


And for those who think the courts will save them: Facts and Case Summary — Korematsu v. U.S.
 
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