<story><title>IRS Awards Equifax $7.25M Contract to Help &apos;Verify Taxpayer Identities&apos;</title><url>https://gizmodo.com/irs-awards-equifax-7-25-million-no-bid-contract-to-hel-1819119424</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>vasco</author><text>How incredible it is that a Federal Agency needs a private company to identify its own citizens. You guys really should get smart ID cards like every other sane country. They have a certificate on them and you can even buy a card reader to use the chip and identify yourself in state-ran online services. Come join us in 2017, it&amp;#x27;s cool here.</text></comment>
<story><title>IRS Awards Equifax $7.25M Contract to Help &apos;Verify Taxpayer Identities&apos;</title><url>https://gizmodo.com/irs-awards-equifax-7-25-million-no-bid-contract-to-hel-1819119424</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>thephyber</author><text>The important part of the reply:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; As noted in public records, the short-term contract was awarded to Equifax to prevent a lapse in service during a protest on another contract. The service relates to assisting in ongoing identity validation needs of the IRS. Equifax provided these identity proofing services to the IRS under a previous contract.</text></comment>