IRS defends use of biometric verification for online FOIA filers

By Rebecca Heilweil, FedScoop, June 10, 2024

A few years ago, the Internal Revenue Service announced that it had begun using the identity credential service ID.me for taxpayers to access various online tools. At some point between then and now, the IRS quietly began directing people filing public records requests through its online portal to register for the private biometric verification system.

Though Freedom of Information Act requests to the tax agency can still be filed through FOIA.gov, the mail, by fax, or even in person, the IRS’s decision to point online filers to ID.me — whose facial verification technology has, in the past, drawn scrutiny from Congress — has raised some advocates’ eyebrows.

Read more here.