IRS is exploring alternatives to selfie verification with ID.me

The Internal Revenue Service is reconsidering alternatives to ID.me, the controversial identity-checking system already used by states and other federal agencies, after public pushback at the notion that taxpayers will need to take selfies to access their IRS.gov accounts.

A Treasury official told CBS MoneyWatch that the agency was looking into alternatives to the software. 

The IRS in November announced its partnership with ID.me, under which taxpayers would need to register with the company to access their IRS.gov accounts to see their history of tax payments or access their tax transcripts. The deal received little scrutiny until this month, when security researcher Brian Krebs documented the process of verifying his identity by uploading documents, trying to take a selfie and connecting to an agent via videochat.