IRS abandons plans to require facial recognition

By Christopher Hutton

Published February 7, 2022 8:19pm ET

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IRS abandons plans to require facial recognition — A man walks past the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Oct. 20, 2017. President Donald Trump's top legislative priority took a major step forward as the Senate narrowly approved a budget vehicle for tax cuts -- but sharp divides over an array of non-binding amendments revealed the towering challenge he faces from here. | (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

The IRS will not require facial recognition to verify one’s identity before using its services online, the agency announced Monday.

The Treasury Department is now directing the tax agency to move away from requiring visual verification amid concerns involving privacy and security after the IRS determined that a third-party service would be used to verify identity by comparing two images of the filer’s face.

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