Lyon, who was trying to verify his identity with ID.me in order to opt out from receiving child tax credit payments from the IRS, noted some visual differences between the pictures: he's about 30 pounds heavier now and has a full beard, he said, rather than a mustache and goatee. Lyon said he was asked to provide more personally identifiable information and he eventually found a way to avoid ID.me and verify his identity directly with the IRS.

Privacy experts, meanwhile, are concerned about the technology's potential for racial bias, as studies (including from NIST) have demonstrated bias in facial recognition algorithms generally. That's why Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez, director of the science and surveillance project at public defender organization Brooklyn Defender Services, finds it "deeply troubling" that New York State's Department of Labor is among the state agencies working with a company that uses the technology.

View full CNN article, here.