After pushback from users, the IRS has announced that it will not require facial recognition in order to register an online account. The IRS was planning to require taxpayers setting up online accounts to verify their identity through a third-party facial recognition services by Summer 2022.
A third-party biometric identification option will still be an option for taxpayers who want to use it and the IRS has established new requirements to ensure images provided for identification are deleted after the account is established. The IRS seems to be facing a dilemma many businesses face- how to implement strong identity verification within acceptable business parameters.