The U.S. Treasury Secretary would be banned from using facial recognition technology to access any American’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) online account under legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI).
“The IRS’ desire to use facial recognition software should be concerning to every American,” Rep. Huizenga said. “The federal government or a vendor it employs should not be requiring Americans to submit to facial recognition in order to access basic IRS services.”
Specifically, the Facial Authorization Cannot be Enforced (FACE) Act, H.R. 6609, which Rep. Huizenga introduced on Feb. 4, would prevent the IRS from using facial recognition software and storing the faces of American taxpayers in a database, according to a bill summary provided by the congressman’s staff.
Rep. Huizenga also pointed out that the IRS is prone to cyber attacks.
“This database would be a treasure trove of information that could be weaponized by cyber criminals, adversaries such as China or Russia, and based on the past targeting of conservative Americans, even the IRS itself,” he said. “The use of facial recognition technology by the IRS dramatically expands the federal government’s role in data collection and puts the privacy of American taxpayers at far too great a risk.”
Rep. Huizenga’s staff cited two recently published news stories explaining how the IRS plans to require taxpayers to use facial recognition software to access tools and services provided by the IRS through an $86 million contract with ID.me, which on its website says it provides secure identity proofing, authentication and group affiliation verification for government and businesses across sectors.
Several other lawmakers have denounced that contract, as well, including 15 U.S. Senate Republicans, who sent a Feb. 3 letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig questioning him about the IRS-ID.me collaboration.
H.R. 6609 has been referred to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee for consideration.