The Department of Labor Controversy over Facial Recognition
Identity verification technology company ID.me quietly deployed a powerful form of facial recognition on unemployment benefits applicants while encouraging state partners to dispel the idea that the company used the technology, according to Oregon state records the American Civil Liberties Union shared with CyberScoop.
The documents show that in the months following the introduction of facial recognition software that matched a photo across a wider database — known as “1:many” — into its fraud detection service, ID.me disseminated talking points to the Oregon Employment Department (OED) and other state partners to combat media reports that it used the more powerful form of facial recognition.
Privacy advocates who are pushing states to drop the technology say the documents raise concerns that states working with ID.me may have been unaware of the risks involved with the use of facial recognition technology, the accuracy of which has been challenged by government and academic researchers. During the pandemic, 30 states contracted ID.me’s services in an effort to assist with a surge in unemployment claims and tamp down on fraud.
ID.me, in its communications with states, mentions known accuracy issues with facial recognition when it is used to match one photo against a database of photos.
“1:Many face matching, also known as 1:N, casts a much larger net and introduces a higher probability of error,” ID.me outlined in a July 24 email to the OED about a CNN article. “It is deeply irresponsible for the media to conflate 1:1 Face Verification with 1:Many Face Recognition,” the company wrote in a separate document sent to states that mentions the CNN article and an article by Reuters.
What isn’t addressed in the email is that six months prior, in February, ID.me began to deploy 1:many facial recognition in its identity verification technology as a means of fraud prevention. Upon setting up an account, users’ photos are compared to an internal database to check for matches that indicate a duplicate, and therefore a possibly fraudulent account.
The Georgia Department of Labor (among many Departments of labor), a
re requiring that applicants submit to the facial scanning or be denied benefits. Additionally applicants must sign off their rights to any class action suits which should arise from use. ID.ME nor the Department of labor will sign off that your identity will not be shared or compromised. The FTC has recently release data breach information and damage settlement for Equifax.
U.S. Senators Urge Ditching ID.me, Face Recognition for Jobless Benefits
Senate Finance Committee members Ron Wyden, Sherrod Brown, and Elizabeth Warren urged the department to ensure state unemployment insurance (UI) programs are able to securely verify their applicants’ identities without sacrificing claimant privacy.
In a letter sent to Labor secretary Marty Walsh, the senators highlighted that in over half of US states, workers filing for UI must sign up for an account with ID.me. Most users have to submit facial recognition to verify their identity and access benefits. They explained that many states started using the service during the pandemic to combat fraud and identity theft, but said that this shouldn’t mean claimant privacy is compromised in the process.
“It is particularly concerning that one of the most prominent vendors in the space, ID.me, not only uses facial recognition and lacks transparency about its processes and results, but frequently has unacceptably long wait times for users to be screened by humans after being rejected by the company’s automated scanning system,” stated the senators. 
Instead, the senators advised that the department should assist state unemployment insurance programmes gain access to federal alternatives like login.gov, run by the General Services Administration, which offers a federal identity verification option.
Login.gov is currently used by 200 websites run by 28 Federal agencies, with over 40 million US citizens having accounts on the service.
IRS announces transition away from third-party facial recognition
The IRS announced it will transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts. The transition will occur over the coming weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season.
During the transition, the IRS will quickly develop and bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition. The IRS will also continue to work with its cross-government partners to develop authentication methods that protect taxpayer data and ensure broad access to online tools.
“The IRS takes taxpayer privacy and security seriously, and we understand the concerns that have been raised,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “Everyone should feel comfortable with how their personal information is secured, and we are quickly pursuing short-term options that do not involve facial recognition.”
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