For those living in the US do you trust ID.me? Why?
Isn’t this a huge privacy invasive centralized government database? Is there a workaround?
The only workaround is to not use ID.me in the first place. This is difficult especially as many governmental agencies like the IRS requires it for their online services.
I figure that you would need some form of ID verification anyways. Shame that this specific method is required to access basic functionality.
ID.me is also not a federal database as it’s a private company with substantial partnerships with specific government agencies and retailers. Besides the IRS or military-related tasks, you only really need to use them if you’re trying to access veteran discounts or something similar. It is not widely adopted as a standard yet, so you shouldn’t be TOO worried about it being a centralized database yet.
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ID dot me has a poor track record as well, Identity check contractor ID.me fires dozens on fraud team as Congress probes. Which, I suspect means all of their business practices are suspect.
Never upload your ID to any website, ever. Always do verification in person. ID dot me offers in-person verification here. I’m not sure if it’s better than online because it still requires one uploads their most sensitive documents to some 3rd party cloud provider.
I don’t know why IRS insists on solely using ID dot me, but login dot gov works far better if you have a passport or other US Govt-backed identification.
Read ID dot me’s terms of service, privacy policy, and biometric privacy policy very carefully. Even under strict state privacy laws, you can’t remove nor stop the sharing of your data.
I wonder if Americans shouldn’t be paying more attention to this identity check contractor that is used by government institutions. I’m surprised that we didn’t discuss much about it before.
Do you mean they should be paying more attention to it? If so, I agree. I learn something new everyday about how my privacy is invaded. It actually blows my mind how society has normalized such a thing like this, so much so that there’s an industry that preys on our privacy. I really, really wonder if the values and ideals held by those such as this community can ever become the norm, because that is the only way change could be implemented largescale.
I’m hoping to revitalize this topic with a more specific and timely focus.
I’m a U.S. taxpayer, and wondering if it’s better to create an IRS[dot]gov account, which requires using the 3rd party authentication service “ID[dot]me”, or better to just do without an IRS[dot]gov account indefinitely.
To be clear, I know I don’t trust ID[dot]me, and I wouldn’t consider submitting to this invasive verification process for almost anything else. Both options in this dilemma are bad, but I’m wondering which is less bad. It might just be a personal judgement call, but I’m hoping someone might know something more about it, or have some other thoughts, that would help tip the balance.
Advantages of creating an IRS account:
An IRS[dot]gov account is a generally useful thing to have, and I’m especially interested in it because it’s the only way to get an “Identity Protection PIN” (IP PIN), which, if you have one, you add to your federal income tax return, and if missing or incorrect, will cause the return to be rejected, thus helping thwart the problem to tax return fraud. The IRS is now urging all taxpayers to create an IRS account, and to get an IP PIN. There may also be a “plant your flag” benefit to setting up an IRS account before criminals do it for you.
Disadvantages of creating an IRS account:
Creating an IRS account requires trusting ID[dot]me – a private contractor that verifies your identity using either a video call, or a selfie plus government ID. I imagine the video call also involves showing ID during the call. The say no permanent record of the video call or photo & ID will be kept, but I’d be skeptical about that even in normal times.
In normal times, I would be comfortable doing this if it were done directly with the IRS rather than a private contractor. But in the current administration, my distrust of ID[dot]me is heightened due my belief that they will not be held accountable for any misuse of the data they hold, and indeed that they might even be coerced by the government to misuse that data. Also in the current administration, I don’t trust the IRS itself like I normally would, because of the way the current administration is misusing and combining data from all parts of the government. Basically I fear that if i set up an account, I’ll be handing that much more data over to Palantir and an oppressive regime, and God only knows how that might come back to haunt me later.
Login[dot]gov is not coming to the rescue:
For several years it looked like the IRS was moving cautiously toward using Login[dot]gov, the federal government’s single sign-on solution, in which I’m already enrolled, but those efforts now seem to be long-stalled, and I don’t imagine the current administration is prioritizing it after firing the bulk of government employees who might have worked on it.
Other discussion:
Searching the internet yields old news articles about the IRS’s use of ID[dot]me and progress toward Login[dot]gov, but I find no meaningful discussion. This seems to be the most relevant existing topic on this forum, and some earlier replies mention specific problems that ID[dot]me has had.
Thanks for any thoughts or advice on weighing these options!