Internal Revenue Service
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Treasury reconsiders IRS use of ID.me facial recognition amid privacy concerns
The Treasury Department is reconsidering the Internal Revenue Service’s use of ID.me for access to its website, according to Bloomberg.
Tax prep companies can’t hide their free filing software from Google anymore
This week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced changes that will hopefully make it less stressful for a lot of Americans to file their taxes in 2020. In an addendum to the almost 20-year-old Free File agreement, the agency has put new protections in place to make it easier for Americans to file their taxes for free.
IRS employee uses Outlook rules to intercept boss's e-mails, convicted of wiretapping
Here's an interesting question for you: if you set up a rule in Microsoft Outlook to forward messages from one account to another, and you do it without the knowledge of the owner of the account you're forwarding from, are you intercepting or merely copying mail? It may seem like a moot point, but for David Szymuszkiewicz, a former IRS worker, it's an important distinction. David was afraid of being fired after his license was suspended for drunk driving (he needed to drive to the homes of delinquent taxpayers), so he secretly set up this rule on his boss's machine to see what the world was saying about him. The rule was discovered and, wouldn't you know it, he was in trouble. The only question now: whether to charge him under the Wiretap Act for intercepting messages or the Stored Communications Act for merely copying of them. So, what was your answer to the question above? You might be tempted to say he was simply making a copy, and indeed that was Szymuszkiewicz's argument, but any Exchange admin will tell you that Outlook rules are executed on the server, not at the client, meaning those e-mails were indeed being intercepted. Szymuszkiewicz was convicted of wiretapping but seems to have avoided a harsh sentence, with 18 months probation being handed down. A light punishment for wiretapping, but a heavy one for diddling menus in Outlook.
IRS saves on recruitment costs with Second Life?
Well, we've had some strange news stories come across our desk, but this one certainly ranks up closer to the top of the list. Frank Stipe, the Virtual Worlds & Social Networking Project Manager for the IRS (yes, the Internal Revenue Service, the people you hate every April) has told CollegeRecruiter.com that the company saves millions of dollars by using Second Life as a recruitment opportunity.IRS Careers Island is not only a job-seeker's resource for more information about the IRS, it's also a race car track where you can drive cars and race your friends! No, we're honestly not joking. As to how the IRS saves money by running this job information/race track island, check out Stipe's full statement after the break!
