(Gregg Pupecki, Headline USA) In response to widespread identity fraud, including billions of dollars stolen from COVID-19 relief programs, local governments have been cracking down on law-abiding Americans.
Dozens of states have been forcing Americans to provide biometric data and facial scans to third-party processors in order to access common social services and benefits, such as unemployment, CNN reported.
The federal government, meanwhile, continued its march toward the surveillance state by announcing two intrusive programs: a nationwide increase in speeding cameras and a new IRS facial-recognition program.
The IRS joined several states in contracting with ID.ME to provide facial recognition analysis and data retrieval.
The company (which has ties to some of the major players in Big Tech) collects email addresses, Social Security numbers, photo IDs and makes each participant take a selfie that will scan their face to verify their identity.
The Washington Business Journal reported that ID.ME had an estimated $1.5 billion value after raising a massive amount of capital from Google Growth Funds.
But reporting shows the company has been under scrutiny and apologized for misinformation.
Several privacy advocates questioned statements issued by the company on safeguards in its use of facial-recognition technology that have not been accurate.
Very s***ty short-term decision making which will only lead to further ruin for Americans when their data is inevitably breached. Now that Fb has “deleted” their data I guess it needs to come from elsewherehttps://t.co/g6eCV3KJkL
— Jackie◎ (@hackingbutlegal) January 20, 2022
“CEO Blake Hall admitted in a LinkedIn post that ID.me uses Amazon’s Rekognition technology to compare video selfies submitted by users to its own, bigger internal database of previous applicants,” Fox Business reported.
“Hall had previously claimed the company used so-called one-to-one technology, a process that compares a selfie taken by an individual to an official document like a driver’s license,” it said.
Hall issued an appology in response to these allegations of misinformation, telling Axios, “My intent is never to mislead.”
Like other woke corportations, Hall has used leftist virtue-signaling as a means to cover all manner of sins that might otherwise be subject to enhanced government scrutiny, regulation and litigation.
“We are committed to permanently increasing equity so that once a user is verified for, say, unemployment, they can use the same ID.me login to prove their identity for services like Medicaid/Medicare, SNAP, Rental Assistance, etc,” he claimed.
“This is the vision that we have strived to realize over the last decade—an America where all people have equitable access to their government,” he continued.
The company also introduced a digital vaccine passport which is enclosed in users’ digital identification wallets.
The ACLU along with several elected officials warn of security and privacy issues but Congress has yet to act to protect citizens.
The IRS said it will be requiring Americans to submit selfies to a third party company, https://t.co/M5I7vv1EWX, for facial recognition scans in order to access our taxes online.
This is deeply troubling for a number of reasons.https://t.co/7BalfG8gMm
— ACLU (@ACLU) January 21, 2022
The great surveillance state and Big Tech march on toward your compulsory digital identity—which includes your medical information and social credit score—unless elected leaders can stop it.
