SAN FRANCISCO — A lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday that the agency intends to narrow its request for broad swaths of account-holder information from San Francisco-based bitcoin exchange Coinbase Inc.

Federal tax enforcement officials have asked Coinbase to sift through reams of data for U.S. customers, including user communications with the company, account passwords and security settings, to allow the government to search for unreported income.

DOJ trial attorney Amy Matchison said at a court hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley Thursday that the IRS has been in talks with Coinbase about narrowing its request to only items the agency would need to look for unreported income. In particular, Matchison said that the agency intends to retract its request for password and security setting information for U.S. Coinbase users.