Patriot, Despite leftists shrieking endlessly that laws requiring a simple ID card to vote are “racist,” beginning this summer the IRS will require a facial recognition selfie, among other things, in order to create or access online accounts with the agency. If you already have an online account with the IRS, it will stop working unless you create a new account through a private company called “ID.me,” which requires applicants to supply a great deal more information than typically requested for online verification schemes, such as scans of your ID, copies of utility or insurance bills, your social security number, credit history, and details about your mobile phone service. You’ll also be required to take a live selfie with your phone or webcam that the company will check against the photo on your ID, and if that doesn’t work, ID.me may require a recorded, live video chat with you. You’ll be required to provide your phone number, and voice-over-IP services like Skype won’t be accepted. As if this massive invasion of your privacy was not enough, according to the shady company’s privacy policy, ID.me can share its data with law enforcement and "select partners" (which is so vague as to mean basically anyone). They will retain your personal data for up to 7 years. We know many state driver license databases are already being used for facial recognition, but this is a massive expansion beyond that. The IRS is using a private company to amass a huge database of our biometric and personal information, without any realistic way to opt out. This is all ostensibly to prevent identity theft – but this could very well become a major cause of identity theft, given the government’s long and embarrassing history of mishandling sensitive personal information of citizens. TELL CONGRESS NOW: Stop the IRS’ Massive Biometric Data Blitz! Remember in 2020 when the federal government admitted to having suffered the worst cyber-espionage breach ever, in which hackers had penetrated thousands of organizations, including the U.S. Treasury Department (IRS), the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts (court documents, including sealed case files), the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the NSA, emails of top officials at the Department of Homeland Security, and hundreds of other organizations? In that attack, hackers had access to some of the most sensitive documents in the world for eight full months before being discovered. The idea that forcing American taxpayers to surrender sensitive personal information, including biometric image maps of our faces, will somehow keep us safe is beyond laughable. This is a profoundly dangerous policy, and the real reason for it is clear. Harvesting the sensitive personal information of the American people is its own goal. TELL CONGRESS NOW: Stop the IRS’ Massive Biometric Data Blitz! The IRS’ new scheme to capture of all of your sensitive personal information through ID.me isn’t just a massive invasion of our privacy and a serious security hazard. . . It’s also a nightmare for every American forced to use this system just to go through the process. Brian Krebs, the journalist who broke the story, described his attempt to enroll in ID.me. Krebs' application became stuck at the "Confirming your Phone" stage – which led to a video chat (and having to resubmit other information) which had an estimated wait time of 3 hours and 27 minutes. This will all be necessary if you want to pay your taxes online. But remember folks, “voter ID laws are racist!” It’s a farce. It’s all an outrage. And it’s long overdue that the American people DEMAND Congress protect our privacy. TELL CONGRESS NOW: Stop the IRS’ Massive Biometric Data Blitz! And if you can, please support Campaign for Liberty’s continued efforts to expose and fight these Deep State attacks on the privacy and security of the American people. Thanks for all that you do for Liberty, John McCardell Executive Director P.S. The I.R.S. policy will take effect by this summer unless we can get Congress to act. You and I must demand that Congress shut down the latest government invasion of our privacy . . . and program that puts even more of our personal information at risk. TELL CONGRESS NOW: Stop the IRS’ Massive Biometric Data Blitz, and pass this on to encourage others to do the same! If you’d prefer to donate via PayPal, please click here. The mission of Campaign for Liberty is to promote and defend the great American
principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a constitutional foreign policy, by means of education,
issue advocacy, and grassroots mobilization. |