How does it work
Login.gov encrypts your personal information in transit and at rest and asks you before sharing your data with a partner agency. Many government agencies can reuse identity assurance credentials across their websites, and Login.gov continues to develop its service to meet the various needs of these agency partners.
During identity proofing, the ID is also checked for authenticity. Then, the personal information is validated with the issuing source (ex: state DMVs) or authoritative sources (ex: credit, telephone records). A self-photograph is used as further proof of your identity by comparing it to the portrait on your government-issued ID, which is also done by our service providers. These external services do not retain any personal information; they are only used for proving your identity. Login.gov currently supports state IDs. Over time, Login.gov will support additional IDs.
Your address is also validated during this process. This can be done remotely using a telephone number associated with the address or through a letter with an enrollment code sent to the account holder’s address. Once validated, Login.gov identity credentials are encrypted with the account holder’s password. Encryption ensures that only you, the account holder, can access your information with your password.
Protecting your privacy through encryption does come at a cost. Login.gov operators, such as our Contact Center team, cannot make changes on your behalf: they cannot unlock your account, change your password, or update your email address or phone number. We encourage you to safeguard your authentication method for this reason. While this means Login.gov cannot provide that level of customer support, doing this helps protect your identity: if we chose to make these options available to our customer support team, our system would be more vulnerable to hacking and more at risk from bad actors.
The information you give Login.gov will be shared with the applicable partner agency to provide access to information about you held by that agency as described in the associated systems of records notices. Please note that the Login.gov system will record certain session-level information about your use of the service, including but not limited to, web browser type and version, and the length of your session. This information allows Login.gov to better understand how the site is being used and how it can be made more helpful.
Back to top