Welcome to the Login.gov Developer Guide | Hacker News Reader

Welcome to the Login.gov Developer Guide

developers.login.gov

49 pointsustad12 comments

I'm a happy user of login.gov for various things (IRS, SSA, etc). But I was surprised that there's also id.me, which is used many places for the same thing, as if there's another login.gov. I'm still not sure why there is two.

"It is a bad thing when one becomes two." - Hagakure

To use ID.me one must:

* Consent to the collection, use, and sharing of their personal information to third parties (i.e. data brokers).

* Agree to binding arbitration and a waiver of class action rights.

* Agree to limits on liability for any indirect, punitive, special, exemplary, incidental, or consequential damages.

* Consent to arbitrary termination of the account at any time for any reason.

ID.me also seems to be the only way to interact with the IRS online, and has arbitrarily decided my identity is unverifiable.

The ID.me requirement is what keeps me from using the IRS online services. I hope that it will be replaced by login.gov eventually.

NIST IAL2 is required for some applications, and login.gov didn't support it, so the third party id.me was used instead.

https://network.id.me/article/what-is-nist-ial2-identity-ver... https://www.biometricupdate.com/202404/login-gov-adds-selfie...

Looks to be the USA equivalent to the GOV.UK One Login system which is also being pushed. Good to see goverments trying to working across departments to make things, eventually, easier https://www.sign-in.service.gov.uk/

Gov.uk can push a login system because it already has penetration across departments of the civil service.

It has that because of political will to implement it, combined with a coherent design language implemented as a set of well-thought-out components. It is a "pit of success" - departments get better quality for less expense, so they don't chafe about it being mandated.

I don't see the political will in America. The population hates anything that the other side touched. "The proud state of Mississippi was built on jQuery", etc.

I personally used it for global entry and I have seen it used for the PPP site during covid

Not to mention Social Security Administration is using this as login now which is a big deal.