Summary
A recent report by Senate Democrats has indicated that at least three tax preparation companies collected data entered on their websites and provided it to Google and Meta. While some of this data was information these companies likely knew, much of it provided an extremely personal glimpse into the lives of these taxpayers.
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Unless you prepare tax returns, you probably dread tax season. However, a report released last week prepared by several Democrat Senators could make you dread it even more. Here’s what these Senators learned about data sharing in several popular tax prep products.
For Personal Tech Media, this is Two Minute Tech. I’m Jim Herman.
This report specifically calls out three tax preparation websites, TaxAct, H&R Block, and TaxSlayer. According to the report, these three tax prep companies, and possibly others, were giving Facebook and Google data on every taxpayer that prepared a return through the website. Furthermore, some of the companies involved are still unsure whether or not these tech platforms are holding and using the data that was collected from their site.
Information shared with the big tech companies includes name, phone number, email address, filing status, adjusted gross income, tax refund, and information about fields entered while filling out the return.
The use of tracking pixels on these websites was at the center of the issue. Tracking pixels are small snippets of code used to identify users across sites and help them understand the behavior of visitors. However, including the pixel across the entire website gave tech companies access to the data that was entered.
However, one of the most popular tax prep sites, TurboTax, did seem to pass the initial investigation. The report revealed that the company did not use tracking pixels to the same extent, which protected the privacy of its users.