ID.me to drop facial recognition requirement for government agencies

Amid concerns over privacy and data security, McLean-based tech company ID.me announced Tuesday it would drop the facial recognition requirement in its identity verification software, offering a new option to all government clients.

Founded in 2010 as TroopSwap, ID.me works with 10 federal agencies, including Social Security and Veterans Affairs, and 30 states, in addition to more than 500 retailers. The company’s announcement follows the Internal Revenue Service’s Monday announcement that it would drop its plan to require taxpayers to submit to facial recognition to access their online records. ID.me holds an $86.1 million contract with the IRS, which originally hired the company to provide facial recognition services.

All users will be able to delete their selfies or photos at account.ID.me beginning March 1, according to a news release.

“We have listened to the feedback about facial recognition and are making this important change, adding an option for users to verify directly with a human agent to ensure consumers have even more choice and control over their personal data,” ID.me founder and CEO Blake Hall said in a statement.

ID.me said agencies that procured its offline option would be able to verify the identifies of their customers through a video call or an in-person meeting, The Washington Post reported, but did not immediately respond to The Post’s questions of whether agencies would have to pay more for the option.

In January, ID.me told The Washington Post that it had 966 agents to handle video-chat verification for the U.S. The company said in a news release on Jan. 26 that it was hiring an additional 750 video chat agents.

ID.me agents have verified more than 3 million Americans, according to a news release, including the unbanked, homeless people and international users. It has a digital identity network of 73 million users with more than 145,000 people joining daily.

The IRS’ initial plan to require facial recognition for online records access beginning this summer had received scrutiny from legislators as well as tech privacy advocates.

On Thursday, a group of 15 Republican U.S. senators, including former Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, sent IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig a letter expressing concern over the IRS’s plan to implement facial recognition, and also questioning how secure taxpayers’ biometric data would be with the third-party service. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, sent Rettig a letter urging the IRS to reverse the “implementation of facial recognition screening software for Americans who wish to access their historical tax documents online.”