Demand Progress

This year, it’s the IRS that made a mistake. When the IRS announced that they wanted taxpayers to submit to facial recognition technology just to access their tax information, the backlash from the public and politicians in both parties was swift!

As a result, the IRS suspended it’s contract with ID.me, their facial recognition vendor. But that’s not enough. They could quietly reinstate that contract, or another one like it, anytime they’d like.

That’s why Senators Roy Blunt and Jeff Merkley introduced the No Facial Recognition at the IRS bill – and in a deadlocked, divided Congress, it’s already got bipartisan support. We need to speak out now to help it become law.

Sign the petition: Tell your member of Congress to pass the No Facial Recognition at the IRS bill!

Facial recognition isn’t just creepy and invasive, it’s been well documented to have racial and gender biases – meaning that women and people of color have a harder time being accurately recognized by the software. No American taxpayer should have to jump through this unnecessary high-tech hoop just to access their tax information online. Especially when the technology itself has trouble telling women and people of color apart from each other.

It’s telling that the No Facial Recognition bill already has bipartisan support in a bitterly divided Congress. The message is clear: emerging technologies, like facial recognition, are a Wild West, and without regulation could lead to dystopian consequences.

Together, activists caused an uproar over the IRS’s use of facial recognition earlier this year. Now we must build on this momentum and make sure the IRS can’t do anything like this in the future.

Sign the petition: Tell your member of Congress to pass the No Facial Recognition at the IRS bill!