The General Services Administration is adding U.S. passports as an option for identity proofing on Login.gov, enabling users to verify identity online using passport records. Login.gov supports over 100 million user accounts and is required by many federal and state agencies for access to benefits and services. New users can present passport books (with passport cards and in-person acceptance planned later) and must take a selfie to match the passport photo; in-person identity checks remain available at selected post offices. GSA will verify passports directly against State Department records to rely more on authoritative government data rather than credit bureaus. The rollout will occur in phases.
Now, new users will be able to use a U.S. passport instead of a driver's license or state ID card in the digital identity proofing process, which requires users to take a selfie for Login.gov to match against their ID photo. Login.gov offers in-person identity checks at certain post offices for some agencies if people can't or don't want to go through the online process.
GSA says that it will be using State Department passport records to verify people against their passports, a move that's in line with the service's goal to use more government authoritative record checks. Although the government has a lot of data about people it could use in the identity proofing process, it largely doesn't. Instead, it often turns to credit bureaus.
Collection
[
|
...
]