Posted on 06/27/2021 6:05:51 PM PDT by GenXFreedomFighter
Has anyone started the process of opting out of the Child Tax Credit advance? I have, and it scares the hell out of me.
The IRS website sends you to a partner company website called ID.me. They start by asking for your cell phone number so they can establish 2-factor identification. I figure no sweat, so I did that. Then they want you to take photos of the front and back of your driver's license. I figure the federal government probably already has that data anyway, so I did that. Then they want you to take a selfie. A series of flashing lights somehow verifies that the picture is live and not a photograph. After that they want you to record your voiceprint using your smartphone. The selfie is where I froze in my tracks and stopped the process.
Does this bother anyone else?
I read the terms of consent and the company policy on use of the biometric data they are collecting. This data is shared with the client on whose behalf you are registering yourself (e.g., the IRS). It says that some of their clients are banks or merchants. It makes sense to me that some folks might want the tightest security possible to protect their financial interests, but this is the U.S. government compelling me to provide identifying biometric information to stop this tax money advance that I do not want.
So in addition to this tax advance being a buyoff to certain sectors of the voting public, it's also a Trojan horse compelling those who want to refuse it to give up some privacy.
Take the money...and take it in cash if you can.
Never trust the government.
Yes, that’s what I fear as well.
Take care, Genxfreedomfighter. Keep us posted!
You’re not paranoid. But you should accept the money.
I don’t qualify for it myself, but if I did, I’d take it.
Yes, a government check every month a terrible idea.
Maybe you want to do the honorable thing, but you can bet the Dems and most other Repubs will be cashing those checks.
Don’t opt out. Just take it.
I work in banking and we use a company that does the same thing if you want to open an account online so it is something used in industry also.
A few items from the official privacy policy:
We may use other industry standard technologies like pixel tags and web beacons to track your use of our Website pages and promotions, or we may allow our Third-Party Service Providers to use these devices on our behalf. Pixel tags and web beacons are tiny graphic images placed on certain pages on our Website, or in our emails that allow us to determine whether you have performed a specific action. When you access these pages or open or click an email, pixel tags and web beacons generate a Non-Personally Identifiable notice of that action.
Pixel tags allow us to measure and improve our understanding of visitor traffic and behavior on our Website, as well as give us a way to measure our promotions and performance. We may also utilize pixel tags and web beacons provided by our Affiliates and/or Marketing Partners for the same purposes. The Website is not presently configured to respond to DNT or “do not track” signals from web browsers.
I believe that while the above may be "industry standard" tracking devices, I personally dislike these and will clean all of my cookies out every so often, even if it breaks my automatic logins.
"We may also utilize pixel tags and web beacons provided by our Affiliates and/or Marketing Partners for the same purposes." Yeah, these guys will sell everything that they can discover about you to every data broker that will give them a dime.
So we need to see which politician forced this goog/FB impersonator on to the IRS. They already have a relationship with Experian data services - why get another one that opens up a new potential supply chain security attack?
Here's one way to get around the EU GDPR privacy rules - ignore them!
The BBB profile is 1.06 out of 5.0, with a rating of F.
Yeah, sounds like a government contractor, all right!
Sorry to hear of your unemployment. If it’s not over, I pray that you find a job soon.
I wouldn’t have done any of that and contacted the IRS directly and found out if these people were legit. Still sounds to me like a site hijack.
If the government gave a hoot about you (no offense intended) they already have all of that information. And more.
The IRS doesn’t care.
Thanks for your response. I don’t doubt that ID.me is legit. It just threw me when they seem to be collecting biometric data on behalf of Uncle Sam. It probably wouldn’t bother me too much if I were pursuing a business interest and they made a case that they were collecting the data to protect me. But for Dementia Joe’s IRS? No frickin’ way!
I probably outed myself as a deplorable just by ASKING to opt out.
I’m tired of all of these “public-private” partnerships.
I would be more paranoid about hackers (or employees of the contractor) having access to the data for identity theft purposes.
I recently had a long time credit card ask me for a bunch of new information like you described (never happened before) and I didn’t really need the card so I just said no.
The fewer folks that have this stuff the better off you are, whether they are government, private contractors or private businesses.
If you do nothing they send you these credit payments this year. If you go through this PITA process then you defer the credits to 2022 as I understand.
Sounds like a lot of trouble. What is the benefit in opting out? Just curious why you are doing this. Thanks.
We have with clients and it has created a real nightmare.
We do the tax returns for over 600 horse and buggy, Mennonite and Amish who do not accept payments from the government. We have returned over $500,000 of the stimulus payments to the government in the past year.
We have many clients with 12+ children qualifying for the advance child credit. It is tempting for the client’s to get addicted to taking the money rather than returning it.
It’s a trap.
The problem is, these people have no driver’s license and usually have no ID.
My wife recently started doing some freelance writing. She brought in some extra income last year that reduced our refund by quite a bit since there was no withholding on it. Which is good in a way; Uncle Sam got less of an interest-free loan from us. But her income is unpredictable, so I wanted to be able to claim the full child credit next year to decrease the likelihood that we would owe at tax time.
I probably outed myself as a deplorable just by ASKING to opt out.
......YOUR MICROCHIP WILL COME BY USPS with instructions how to stab yourself with it. You are marked.
What if a U.S. citizen doesn't have 1) a computer; 2) a cell phone; 3) a driver's license?
Regards,
Why the h*ll did you tell him that you have not made transactions totalling $1500 on your credit card!?
Why tell some stranger on the phone even only that much?!
Regards,
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