IRS Will Soon Require Selfies for Online Access

[milimelo 4,481]

Look at this use of ID.me for advertisement: 

 

[Allaboutwaiting 2,503]

3 minutes ago, milimelo said:

Look at this use of ID.me for advertisement: 

 

That was their initial business model: offering coupons/deals/discounts to veterans who were required to be fully "vetted" in order to receive them; it then expanded to nurses and students. 

[MrKo 60]

I am in full agreement with the fight against cybercrime and fraud. All reported bad user experience aside, my biggest problem with this ID.me is that, unlike SSA, which uses 2 services for identity verification (login.gov and ID.me), the IRS will be using ID.me solely and there will be no other choice or an alternative way to login - meaning if you want to access your tax files online, your only choice will be to give essentially all your private and sensitive information, including your biometrics, to this 3rd party company that most people have never heard of, and let it decide whether you can access your own tax files or not. I thought accessing our tax files (online or not) was part of our basic human rights, no? Who gave this third-party company the power to restrict this right that we have? Is this even legal?

 

And speaking of safety, has anyone noticed that ID.me is a Montenegro domain name? The ".me" is a domain name for the country of Montenegro, not the USA. According to Wikipedia, "The .me registry is operated by doMEn, which won a contract to do so after a bid process conducted by the government of Montenegro", and the intended use for .me domain names is for "entities connected with Montenegro". I'm not an expert here and am not quite sure what the underlying security risks are, my understanding is that all .me domain names are under the jurisdiction of the Montenegrin government - correct me if I'm wrong. I need an explanation here why it's OK for the top US government to send millions of Americans to a site registered under a Montenegrin domain name to submit all our sensitive information?

 

Last but not least, if they implement such crazy identity verification to gatekeep access to our tax files and benefits, shouldn't they do the same for voting as well? It's the most vulnerable people who are being impacted the most anyway.

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,370]

Evidently most conservatives are not as supportive of picture ID requirements as I thought. 

[jim_julian 26]

This ID.me controversy has been WAAAY overblown by the media.  The Veterans Administration uses ID.me as a verification method for you to access your confidential medical information on the secure VA portal.   I use ID.me in this way several times a week.  It works flawlessly.  Someone above mentioned the California EDD.  The EDD program did not use ID.me and lost at least $20B of our taxpayer money to people, many foreign, filing fraudulent unemployment claims. (Google it)  Had EDD used ID.me the fraud would have been greatly reduced.  The use of ID.me with respect to the IRS, I believe, only will apply to dealing with the IRS online and, as I understand it, you will also be able to accomplish most things manually by snail mail, telephone, visiting an IRS office, etc.  This ID.me flap is much ado about nothing.  

Edited January 24, 2022 by jim_julian

[Allaboutwaiting 2,503]

2 hours ago, jim_julian said:

This ID.me controversy has been WAAAY overblown by the media.  The Veterans Administration uses ID.me as a verification method for you to access your confidential medical information on the secure VA portal.   I use ID.me in this way several times a week.  It works flawlessly.  Someone above mentioned the California EDD.  The EDD program did not use ID.me and lost at least $20B of our taxpayer money to people, many foreign, filing fraudulent unemployment claims. (Google it)  Had EDD used ID.me the fraud would have been greatly reduced.  The use of ID.me with respect to the IRS, I believe, only will apply to dealing with the IRS online and, as I understand it, you will also be able to accomplish most things manually by snail mail, telephone, visiting an IRS office, etc.  This ID.me flap is much ado about nothing.  

IRS started using it a year ago for children tax credit and there was no other option; there are many complaints about people not being able to be verified -both for tax credit and employment benefits-.

Now every new account MUST use this service and old accounts will be required to sign up beginning this summer -no other option offered except for getting tax transcripts through mail-.

 

The way this company operates increases the data leaking risks exponentially as they require many sensitive documents to be transmitted through the web in several formats and the process has many steps with the potential to be hacked/breached. Not to mention the risks of their whole data base being stolen. 

[TBoneTX 45,305]

Someone in Congress (that is, if anyone there has guts) might jump on this, with elections coming up.

 

What does all this mean for CPAs, and people who have CPAs?

[millefleur 5,046]

11 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

What does all this mean for CPAs, and people who have CPAs?

I'll ask my CPA, I'm curious. Still waiting for all my tax forms to arrive via snail mail first.

[Allaboutwaiting 2,503]

7 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

Someone in Congress (that is, if anyone there has guts) might jump on this, with elections coming up.

 

What does all this mean for CPAs, and people who have CPAs?

Don't think they had any of that in mind. 

Classic bureaucratic decision from someone not even trying to make it seem well thought. 

[LjpRch 3]

The IRS's security system prior to this idme was not much better. Around 3 years ago I tried logging into my IRS account to make a change to my payment plan. I discovered a new security protocol and I had to go through many steps to ID myself. Problem is unless you fit into this neat box that the computer thinks we all live in then some of us can't be identified. For instance the program wanted a credit card #. Don't have those. The program wanted a home mortgage #. Don't have that. Program wanted student loan #. Don't have that. And so on......  I began at least somewhat to realize how people who are discriminated against feel. 

So now I'm locked out of my account and rather than waiting hours to talk to some ya-hoo on the phone I send letters which have a current turn around time of around 9 months. 

[seekingthetruth 1,246]

14 hours ago, Nature Boy 2.0 said:

Evidently most conservatives are not as supportive of picture ID requirements as I thought. 

Presenting physical picture ID to prove who you are in person is a far cry from this.  I guess I will soon not have access to my online SSA and IRS info, because I live overseas.

[MrKo 60]

14 hours ago, jim_julian said:

This ID.me controversy has been WAAAY overblown by the media.  The Veterans Administration uses ID.me as a verification method for you to access your confidential medical information on the secure VA portal.   I use ID.me in this way several times a week.  It works flawlessly.  Someone above mentioned the California EDD.  The EDD program did not use ID.me and lost at least $20B of our taxpayer money to people, many foreign, filing fraudulent unemployment claims. (Google it)  Had EDD used ID.me the fraud would have been greatly reduced.  The use of ID.me with respect to the IRS, I believe, only will apply to dealing with the IRS online and, as I understand it, you will also be able to accomplish most things manually by snail mail, telephone, visiting an IRS office, etc.  This ID.me flap is much ado about nothing.  

They can implement whatever technology they want to fight fraud and cybercrime, but they should do it in a much more mature, widely tested, and thoughtful way. Especially when it's a major federal government agency that deals with the entire population of this country. Sending 100% of Americans who need to access online tax files to this SINGLE 3rd-party company registered under a Montenegrin domain name to undergo an invasive and glitchy data collection process, having them store your data for up to 7.5 years, and then letting this single company decide whether you can access your own files/account or not, sounds like a terrible idea. I wouldn't be so concerned if the IRS offered at least one more option - in the financial world, we call it "risk diversification", e.g. adding login.gov as an alternative, just like SSA (I still have too many questions about ID.me nevertheless), but no, that's not what's happening.

[jim_julian 26]

41 minutes ago, MrKo said:

They can implement whatever technology they want to fight fraud and cybercrime, but they should do it in a much more mature, widely tested, and thoughtful way. Especially when it's a major federal government agency that deals with the entire population of this country. Sending 100% of Americans who need to access online tax files to this SINGLE 3rd-party company registered under a Montenegrin domain name to undergo an invasive and glitchy data collection process, having them store your data for up to 7.5 years, and then letting this single company decide whether you can access your own files/account or not, sounds like a terrible idea. I wouldn't be so concerned if the IRS offered at least one more option - in the financial world, we call it "risk diversification", e.g. adding login.gov as an alternative, just like SSA (I still have too many questions about ID.me nevertheless), but no, that's not what's happening.

14 hours ago, jim_julian said:

This ID.me controversy has been WAAAY overblown by the media.  The Veterans Administration uses ID.me as a verification method for you to access your confidential medical information on the secure VA portal.   I use ID.me in this way several times a week.  It works flawlessly.  Someone above mentioned the California EDD.  The EDD program did not use ID.me and lost at least $20B of our taxpayer money to people, many foreign, filing fraudulent unemployment claims. (Google it)  Had EDD used ID.me the fraud would have been greatly reduced.  The use of ID.me with respect to the IRS, I believe, only will apply to dealing with the IRS online and, as I understand it, you will also be able to accomplish most things manually by snail mail, telephone, visiting an IRS office, etc.  This ID.me flap is much ado about nothing.  

ID.me is a trusted U.S. government partner and 1 of only 4 Single Sign-On providers that meet the U.S. government's most rigorous requirements for online identity proofing and authentication.  ME domain is the country code top level domain (ccTLD) for Montenegro, globally available for registration without any restrictions. This means that anybody can register a .ME domain with their favorite registrar. Despite being a ccTLD, .ME is very similar to generic TLDs in terms of policies, domain cycle and SEO benefits, and most importantly, Google treats it like any other generic TLD.  The ME domain does NOT mean that the user has any substantive connection with Montenegro.  Again, much ado about nothing.

[Dashinka 24,512]

16 hours ago, Nature Boy 2.0 said:

Evidently most conservatives are not as supportive of picture ID requirements as I thought. 

I think it has more to do with the requirement to provide sensitive information to a 3rd party to get this form of ID.  Not really familiar with this system overall, but as others have said, this domain is not US based, so who knows what will happen.  I know the economy is all about information now, so when will people start fighting back as to the worth of their information?  To me it is sort of like when I go buy a car.  I always make the dealership remove all dealership advertisement (stickers, plate holders, etc.) from the vehicle prior to delivery unless they are willing to pay me a nominal fee for advertisement.

[jim_julian 26]

6 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

I think it has more to do with the requirement to provide sensitive information to a 3rd party to get this form of ID.  Not really familiar with this system overall, but as others have said, this domain is not US based, so who knows what will happen.  I know the economy is all about information now, so when will people start fighting back as to the worth of their information?  To me it is sort of like when I go buy a car.  I always make the dealership remove all dealership advertisement (stickers, plate holders, etc.) from the vehicle prior to delivery unless they are willing to pay me a nominal fee for advertisement.

ME domain is the country code top level domain (ccTLD) for Montenegro, globally available for registration without any restrictions. This means that anybody can register a .ME domain with their favorite registrar. Despite being a ccTLD, .ME is very similar to generic TLDs in terms of policies, domain cycle and SEO benefits, and most importantly, Google treats it like any other generic TLD.  The ME domain does NOT mean that the user has any substantive connection with Montenegro.  You are NOT sending your info to Montenegro.  ID.me headquarters: 8281 Greensboro Dr. Suite 600 Washington, DC 22102 United States of America

Edited January 24, 2022 by jim_julian