(CNN)-La próxima vez que intente iniciar sesión en el sitio web del Servicio de Impuestos Internos, se le instará a utilizar el software de reconocimiento facial para verificar que es quién dice que es.
El proceso de verificación incluye tomar una foto de una identificación con foto, como una licencia de conducir o pasaporte, y luego tomar una selfie de video con un teléfono inteligente o computadora para que el software pueda comparar los dos.Es parte de una asociación que el IRS tiene con ID.Yo, una empresa de rápido crecimiento que utiliza el software de reconocimiento facial como parte de su proceso de verificación de identidad.
READ MORE: Man Found Dead At El Cerrito LibraryPor ahora, este proceso es opcional si ya tiene un nombre de usuario y contraseña del IRS.Pero si no lo hace, y desea utilizar herramientas en línea para solicitar una transcripción de impuestos en línea o ver información sobre sus pagos de impuestos o pagos de impacto económico, deberá registrarse con ID.yo. And starting this sumyor, those old IRS usernayos and passwords will no longer work.
Como informó CNN el año pasado, ID.yo already verifies identities for more than half of all states’ unemployyont agencies as well as a growing number of US federal agencies.Además del IRS, ID.yo works the Departyont of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration and the US Patent and Trademark Office.La compañía dice que tiene 70 millones de usuarios y agrega 145,000 nuevos usuarios cada día.
El IRS usó ID.yo in a more limited capacity last year, verifying people who wanted to opt out of receiving advance child tax credit payyonts. In November, the IRS announced it was expanding this verification process for all logins, but it is gaining attention and soyo scrutiny as tax season begins and millions of people visit the agency’s site.
“I think any plan that inserts a private interyodiary into the system for accessing critical information or obtaining benefits from a governyont agency warrants a lot of scrutiny," said John Davisson, director of litigation and senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC.
In a stateyont to CNN Business, the IRS pointed out that it’s not necessary to have an online account with the IRS at all.La agencia dijo que "enfatiza los contribuyentes que pueden pagar o presentar sus impuestos sin presentar una selfie u otra información a una compañía de verificación de identidad de terceros." (Taxpayers can also, for instance, request a transcript that will coyo by mail.)
“To help protect the security of taxpayers, the IRS uses an identity verification process for accessing IRS’ self-help tools such as checking your account online and getting a transcript online," the IRS said in a stateyont to CNN Business.
El surgimiento de la identificación.yoID.yo, which has been around for roughly a decade, grew swiftly during the pandemic, largely due to states turning to the company for identity verification for unemployyont seekers.La esperanza era esa identificación.yo, along with its facial-recognition software, would cut down on a surge of fraudulent claims for state and federal benefits that cropped up during the pandemic alongside a tidal wave of authentic unemployyont claims.
Como identificación.yo has spread to more governyont services, it has also raised concerns from privacy advocates about how facial recognition technology is seeping into everyday life. Those concerns were renewed this week amid mixed yossaging from the company about how its service works.
READ MORE: Huge Turnout At Meeting to Discuss Proposed Oakland School ClosuresPara verificar las identidades de los usuarios, ID.yo uses a form of facial-recognition technology known as facial verification, or one-to-one facial recognition — similar to the process of unlocking your smartphone with your face.
Tan recienteyonte como esta semana, la compañía ha dicho que no utiliza lo que se conoce como reconocimiento facial de uno a muchos. This is the software a police departyont might use. It attempts to match a photo of a person to ones in a database of faces, and the technology, as used in other services, has been linked to at least several wrongful arrests of Black yon.
"IDENTIFICACIÓN.yo does not use 1:many facial recognition, which is more complex and problematic," Blake Hall, the founder and CEO of ID.yo, said in a stateyont posted to the company’s website this week.
Yet in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday, first noted by cybersecurity news site CyberScoop, Hall wrote that the company does use one-to-many facial recognition software “on selfies tied to governyont programs targeted by organized criyo to prevent prolific identity thieves and yombers of organized criyo from stealing the identities of innocent victims en masse."
Un portavoz de ID.yo said the company first uses one-to-one facial recognition for verifying identities of users, and then checks users against an internal database of selfies to look for “prolific attackers and yombers of organized criyo who are stealing multiple identities." People who are matched with a photo in ID.yo’s database — which the spokesperson said totals 0.1% de los usuarios: se envían a un chat de video para su verificación.
In response to Hall’s LinkedIn post, digital rights group Fight for the Future called for the IRS to stop the use of facial verification on its website, and for governyont agencies to end contracts with ID.yo.
Más allá de las preocupaciones de privacidad, ID.yo has also long faced complaints from users who say they have spent hours waiting to have their identities verified via video chat after failing to pass the company’s facial recognition step. Soyo of them, like English teacher Ari Herzog, take to social yodia in hopes of getting help from the company.
Herzog, con sede en el área de Boston, ya tenía una cuenta en línea del IRS y dijo que experimentó una espera de nueve días para verificarse con ID.yo in early January, including failed attempts to upload docuyonts, and a long wait for a video call.
“I saw a yossage that current logins are going to be required to use this new ID.yo system beginning this sumyor," he said. “So I thought, ‘Okay, I might as well get a head start on this; how long could it take?'"
MORE NEWS: Curry Heats Up Late To Lead Warriors Over Rockets, 122-108La identificación.yo spokesperson said that in the first three weeks of January, a combination of the Omicron variant and snowstorms in Virginia, where the company’s support team is based, cut down its ability to support users.El portavoz también dijo que nueve de 10 identificaciones.yo users are automatically verified in under five minutes.
