ID.me

⚠️ Article status notice: This article has been marked as incomplete

This article needs additional work for its sourcing and verifiability to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues.

This notice will be removed once sufficient documentation has been added to establish the systemic nature of these issues. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, please visit the Moderator's noticeboard, or the discord and post to the #appeals channel.

Learn more ▼

This Article Requires Additional Verification

---

This article has been flagged due to verification concerns. While the topic might have merit, the claims presented lack citations that live up to our standards, or rely on sources that are questionable or unverifiable by our standards. Articles must meet the Moderator Guidelines and Mission statement; factual accuracy and systemic relevance are required for inclusion here!

Why This Article Is In Question

---

Articles in this wiki are required to:

• Provide verifiable & credible evidence to substantiate claims.
• Avoid relying on anecdotal, unsourced, or suspicious citations that lack legitimacy.
• Make sure that all claims are backed by reliable documentation or reporting from reputable sources.

Examples of issues that trigger this notice:

• A topic that heavily relies on forum posts, personal blogs, or other unverifiable sources.
• Unsupported claims with no evidence or citations to back them up.
• Citations to disreputable sources, like non-expert blogs or sites known for spreading misinformation.

How You Can Improve This Article

---

To address verification concerns:

• Replace or supplement weak citations with credible, verifiable sources.
• Make sure that claims are backed by reputable reporting or independent documentation.
• Provide additional evidence to demonstrate systemic relevance and factual accuracy. For example:
  • Avoid: Claims based entirely on personal anecdotes or hearsay without supporting documentation.
  • Include: Corporate policies, internal communications, receipts, repair logs, verifiable video evidence, or credible investigative reports.

If you believe this notice has been placed in error, or once the article has been updated to address these concerns, please visit the Moderator's noticeboard, or the #appeals channel on our Discord server: Join here.

ID.me

Basic information
Founded	2010
Legal Structure	Private
Industry	Identity verification
Also known as
Official website	https://id.me

ID.me is an online identity verification service founded in 2010 by Blake Hall and Matt Thompson. The goal of ID.me is "to be the last login you ever need to create and manage and the last time you need to verify your identity." Businesses such as Chipotle, Chick-fil-a, NBA, and Belk use ID.me to verify if a customer is a college student/employed, a real person, or served in the military to receive deals, purchase event tickets, or military discounts.

Consumer impact summary

Freedom

Users can request to close their ID.me accounts and opt-out of marketing emails and personalized advertisements.

Privacy

According to the privacy policy, ID.me "will not sell, rent, or trade your Personal Information", however user information such as bio-metric, first name, last name, date of birth, phone number, email address, and physical address may be shared with federal government agencies. In addition, the company may share user information to third parties, such as customer support, web hosting, information technology, payment processing, direct mail and email distribution, and administration, and analytics services.

To create an ID.me account, you need to give personal information, which can include:

• First name
• Middle name
• Last name
• Email
• Phone number
• SSN/ITIN
• Street address
• Postal code

When a user requests to close their account, data is retained for three years. This data includes "events, logins, and transactions as well as verification history (e.g., community, vaccine, or identity details including documentation and data elements used for verification". Selfies for initial bio-metric verification are deleted twenty-four hours after completion.

Business model

ID.me is funded by private equity firms such as Ares Management funds, Ribbit Capital, Viking Global Investors, and CapitalG.

Market control

ID.me is the primary verification system used in the United States of America for businesses and governments, due to the service being "the only digital wallet that meets the federal government standards for secure login and multi-factor authentication [...] at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Identity Assurance Level 2". As of November 2024, ID.me has over 136 million members, 600+ stores, 65 health organizations, and 19 federal agencies using their service.

Social Security

Logging in to the Social Security website requires a Login.gov or ID.me account, as of April 2026.

Incidents

This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the ID.me category.

Privacy concerns (2022—)

The mandatory IRS ID.me log-in screen for an individual, business, and tax professional in 2025 (previously there was an option to use a traditional IRS account)

American taxpayers who used Direct File were forced to utilize ID.me as a service. The IRS has claimed the service is "the only credential service provider currently available to the IRS that meets the identity assurance level 2 standard for identity verification and sign-in services", however, some lawmakers expressed their disapproval of the reliance on ID.me for tax filing, including Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Katie Porter who mention facial recognition's influence in the wrongful arrest of black men.

According to John Titlow from Business Insider, while trying to change his phone number on his ID.me account to apply for unemployment, the support agent asked for his sensitive information over e-mail, including scans of a passport and Social Security card. It is recommended to never send sensitive information over e-mail due to many e-mail providers, such as Google Gmail and Microsoft Outlook, not encrypting the contents.

Products

This is a list of the company's product lines with articles on this wiki.

• Example product line one (release date): Short summary of the product's incidents.
• Example product line two (release date):

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

See also

Link to relevant theme articles or companies with similar incidents.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.