You probably didn’t notice when filing taxes online became a facial recognition checkpoint. One moment you’re logging into the IRS website, the next you’re holding your driver’s license up to your phone camera while an AI scans your face. Welcome to the new internet tax—paid not in dollars, but in biometric data.
What started as Louisiana’s 2022 law requiring government ID verification for adult websites has metastasized into a nationwide digital identity dragnet. By 2025, states from Texas to Arkansas demand face scans or document uploads for everything from social media accounts to tax services. The Supreme Court’s recent Texas ruling essentially greenlit this biometric bonanza, treating your facial geometry as the cost of online participation.
The IRS exemplifies this creeping surveillance. Over 70% of taxpayers now verify through ID.me’s facial recognition system, despite Senator Ron Wyden’s protests that it’s “simply unacceptable to force Americans to submit to scans using facial recognition technology as a condition of interacting with the government online.” The agency has spent $242 million on these contracts while failing to track performance metrics—a bureaucratic blank check for your biometric blueprint.
This isn’t just about adult content anymore. Social platforms in Utah and Arkansas now require age verification that effectively deanonymizes all users. Sites like Pornhub simply withdrew from compliant states rather than build digital ID checkpoints, driving users toward VPNs like digital refugees. The Electronic Frontier Foundation warns these mandates “create barriers along lines of race, disability, and immigration status,” turning internet access into a privilege for the properly documented.
Resistance is building. Login.gov serves 40 million Americans without biometrics, proving government services don’t require facial scans. The Free Speech Coalition continues challenging state laws in court. Privacy advocates are developing zero-knowledge proof systems that could verify age without revealing identity—though they’re years away from mainstream adoption.
You’re watching the internet transform from an open commons into an identity-gated community. The choice isn’t between safety and chaos, but between convenience and anonymity. Every face scan you submit today shapes the digital world your children will inherit tomorrow.
