Author: easyfilo

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | imaginima)

The Internal Revenue Service is dropping a controversial facial recognition system that requires people to upload video selfies when creating new IRS online accounts.

“The IRS announced it will transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts,” the agency said today. “The transition will occur over the coming weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season. During the transition, the IRS will quickly develop and bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition.”

The IRS has been using the third-party system ID.me for facial recognition of taxpayers. Privacy and civil rights advocates and lawmakers from both major parties have objected to the system. The IRS wasn’t demanding ID.me verification for filing tax returns but was requiring it for accessing related services, such as account information, applying for payment plans online, requesting transcripts, and the Child Tax Credit Update Portal.

Enlarge / The 2020 iPhone SE. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Once again, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has published a predictive report. This time, Bloomberg’s sources have shared details on Apple’s upcoming Spring event.

The report claims that Apple will host this year’s event on March 8, which is a little earlier than usual. And the report names four major announcements expected at the event. In contrast to some of Gurman’s recent newsletters, he cites sources familiar with Apple’s plans, lending the report some credibility.

The Apple event will feature a new iPhone SE model with 5G capabilities, as has long been rumored. The sources also say the mid-range smartphone will have a faster processor and an improved camera, but it won’t feature a radical new design.

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

In the interest of combating ransomware and other malware, Microsoft is planning a major change in how its Office software handles macros: when files that use macros are downloaded from the Internet, those macros will now be disabled entirely by default. Current versions of the software offer an alert banner on these kinds of files that can be clicked through, but the new version of the banner offers no way to enable the macros.

The change will be previewed starting in April in Office version 2203, before being rolled out to all users of the continuously updated Microsoft 365 version of Office starting in June. The change will also be enabled for all currently supported standalone versions of Office, including versions 2021, 2019, 2016, and 2013. The Mac, iOS, Android, and web versions of Office won’t be affected.

Office can track which macros were downloaded from the Internet or from a networked share using a “Zone.Identifier” tag, at least when the file is saved to an NTFS volume. This so-called “mark-of-the-web” (MOTW) is already used in Office—if you’ve ever downloaded a document or spreadsheet and been informed that editing has been disabled by default, thank an MOTW. When Office sees a mark-of-the-web tag, the program opens that file in read-only Protected View mode just in case the file is malicious.