{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-30T06:16:17.396Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"id-me","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2021-nevada-unemployment-claimant-says-id-me-face-check-rejected-him-and-locked-him-out-of-benefits","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"which uses a combination of biometric information and official documents to confirm that applicants are who they claim to be.; ID.me CEO Blake Hall told Motherboard that the company’s facial recognition technology does one-to-one matching—comparing one face against a picture of that same face (from a driver’s license, say); At least 21 states use ID.me to detect fraudulent benefit claims.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"ID.me verifies the identity of people claiming unemployment benefits in at least 21 US states, using biometric information and official documents, including a facial recognition step that compares one face with a picture of that same face, such as from a driving licence.","causal_attribution":"Motherboard's description and ID.me's chief executive's account of the system."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"a gig economy worker in Las Vegas who was suddenly cut off from his unemployment benefits in late March after ID.me failed to identify him.; it rejected it, didn’t give us a reason, just rejected it. It rejected it three times, and then it locked me out of the system.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A gig economy worker in Las Vegas says he was suddenly cut off from his unemployment benefits in late March 2021 after ID.me failed to identify him; he says the facial recognition test rejected him three times without giving a reason and then locked him out of the system.","causal_attribution":"The claimant's account to Motherboard; the year comes from the article's date of 18 June 2021."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"He tried contacting the state of Nevada for help, but the employees there directed him back to ID.me.; until he tweeted a scathing criticism of the company, which then reached out and—after several more frustrating days—verified","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The claimant says ID.me's chat support did not resolve the problem despite many attempts and the state of Nevada directed him back to ID.me; after several weeks he posted a public criticism, and the company contacted him and, after several more days, verified his identity.","causal_attribution":"The claimant's account as reported by Motherboard."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"went for three weeks without receiving his benefit. “I couldn’t pay bills,”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The claimant says he went three weeks without his benefit and could not pay bills.","causal_attribution":"The claimant's own statement to Motherboard."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"“The algorithms used for Face Match operate ~99.9% efficacy,” Hall wrote in an email to Motherboard.; Hall said that facial recognition failures are not a problem with the technology but with the people using it to verify their identity.; “We are unaware of eligible individuals who have not been able to verify their identity with ID.me,”","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"ID.me chief Blake Hall blamed the problems on users rather than the technology. Face Match algorithms have \"99.9% efficacy,","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"ID.me's chief executive told Motherboard that its Face Match algorithms operate at about 99.9% efficacy, that face-match failures are a problem with the people using the system rather than the technology, and that the company was unaware of eligible individuals unable to verify their identity.","causal_attribution":"ID.me's response, kept as counterevidence; Engadget relays the same statement."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"ID.me unsurprisingly took issue with the Motherboard piece in a response provided to Engadget. Hall called the fraud claims \"inaccurate and defamatory,\" and stressed that the company suck to National Institute of Standards and Technology standards for identification. He reiterated the claims made about the nature of the facial recognition system and the video chat backup","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"In a response to Engadget, ID.me called Motherboard's fraud claims inaccurate and defamatory and repeated its account of the facial recognition system and its video chat backup.","causal_attribution":"ID.me's statement to Engadget."}],"effects":[{"label":"claimant says the face check rejected and locked him out, stopping his benefits for three weeks","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.vice.com/en/article/facial-recognition-failures-are-locking-people-out-of-unemployment-systems/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-30; no translation.","independence_group":"motherboard-2021-06-18"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.engadget.com/facial-recognition-failures-id-me-unemployment-benefits-172654494.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-30; no translation.","independence_group":"engadget-2021-06-19"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["public_services","finance"],"unknowns":["The exact dates of the lockout and of the verification; Motherboard gives only late March and three weeks without the benefit.","Why the face match failed in this case: no analysis of the attempts is reported, and ID.me attributes failures in general to users' photos.","Whether the missed benefit weeks were later paid."],"geography":{"basis":"The benefits were Nevada unemployment benefits: the claimant says he sought help from the state of Nevada, which sent him back to ID.me. Motherboard describes him as a gig economy worker in Las Vegas.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a state unemployment system's facial recognition identity check rejecting a described claimant three times and locking him out, which he says stopped his benefit for three weeks until the company verified him. His account is attributed; ID.me's explanation that failures come from users is recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-30"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Motherboard and ID.me's chief executive describe ID.me Face Match as a facial recognition step that compares a claimant's face with the photo on an identity document. The claimant says that step rejected his face three times and locked him out of the system, which cut off his unemployment benefit, and that ID.me later verified him as the same person after his public complaint. The rejection of a person the company later verified is the system's own failed match. ID.me's chief executive says such failures come from users' photos; the cause in this case is not established.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_decision_about"]},"name":"Nevada unemployment claimant says ID.me face check rejected him three times and locked him out, leaving him three weeks without benefits","summary":"ID.me, an identity-verification company used by at least 21 US states to check people claiming unemployment benefits, asks claimants to pass a facial recognition step that compares their face with a photo of the same person, such as a driving licence. In June 2021 Motherboard (VICE) reported that a gig economy worker in Las Vegas was suddenly cut off from his unemployment benefits in late March after ID.me failed to identify him. He said that when he held his phone in the instructed position the system rejected him three times without giving a reason and then locked him out. He said he tried ID.me's chat support many times and the state of Nevada sent him back to ID.me; after several weeks he posted a public criticism on Twitter, and the company contacted him and, after several more days, verified his identity. He said he went three weeks without his benefit and could not pay bills. ID.me's chief executive told Motherboard that its Face Match algorithms operate at about 99.9% efficacy, that failures are a problem with how people use the system rather than the technology, and that the company was unaware of eligible people unable to verify their identity. Motherboard said other claimants in several states described similar lockouts; those accounts are not counted here.","incidentDate":"2021-03-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2021-06-18","aiSystem":"ID.me Face Match, a one-to-one facial recognition step in ID.me's identity verification for state unemployment benefit claimants, as described by Motherboard and ID.me's chief executive","aiProduct":"ID.me Face Match","aiCompany":"ID.me","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["financial_loss","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The claimant says ID.me's face check rejected him three times and locked him out, cutting off his unemployment benefit; he says he went three weeks without it, could not pay bills, and spent weeks trying to reach ID.me and the state before the company verified him. He describes the experience as ridiculous.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One claimant describes being rejected by the face check and losing benefits. Motherboard says other claimants in several states complained of similar problems but gives no count tied to the face check, so they are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.vice.com/en/article/facial-recognition-failures-are-locking-people-out-of-unemployment-systems/","primarySourceLabel":"Motherboard (VICE), Facial Recognition Failures Are Locking People Out of Unemployment Systems, 18 June 2021","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-30T03:05:29.391311+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-30T03:05:29.391311+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["id-me","facial-recognition","unemployment-benefits","identity-verification","public-services","nevada"]}]}