In a serious flip of occasions, embattled id verification firm ID.me says it’ll make facial recognition verification non-obligatory for all of its public sector authorities companions. Additionally, beginning March 1, the corporate says all ID.me customers will have the ability to delete their face scans.

That reversal comes simply someday after the Internal Revenue Service mentioned it could scrap ID.me’s facial recognition service for customers attempting to entry on-line IRS companies amid an outpouring of criticism from civil liberty teams and a bipartisan assortment of lawmakers.

“We have listened to the feedback about facial recognition and are making this important change, adding an option for users to verify directly with a human agent to ensure consumers have even more choice and control over their personal data,” ID.me Founder and CEO Blake Hall mentioned in a press release.

In the previous, ID.me customers would submit a face scan to confirm their id towards a authorities doc. If ID.me’s system did not validate that scan, the customers would then be part of a recorded video name with an ID.me consultant referred to as a “Trusted Referee.” Moving ahead it seems that all ID.me customers trying to entry public sector authorities companions will have the ability to use an identical human id verification methodology with out first submitting a face scan. In some instances, customers also can go for an in-person verification if the related company has opted into ID.me’s offline choice.

“ID.me is an identity verification company, not a biometrics company,” the corporate mentioned in its press launch.

The change comes as a number of privateness teams, together with Fight for the Future and the American Civil Liberties Union, have referred to as on different authorities companies to observe the IRS’s lead and abandon ID.me’s facial recognition service.

Though the coverage change will seemingly come as welcome information to some who expressed criticism over ID.me’s use of biometrics, different privateness specialists like just like the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project’s Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn remained skeptical.

“This is too little too late,” Fox Cahn advised Gizmodo. “If ID.me agrees that facial recognition is too invasive for some customers, why can’t they agree it’s wrong for all Americans? And if they had this alternative option all along, why did they rely on biometric tracking to begin with?”