Senate Dems say 'massive' taxpayer privacy breach needs DOJ probe

[Nevilledog]

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/12/senate-dems-say-massive-taxpayer-privacy-breach-needs-doj-probe-00105853

A group of Democratic senators wants the Justice Department to investigate several tax prep companies after an investigation the lawmakers launched concluded the companies shared reams of taxpayers’ personal and financial information with Meta.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and others accuse H&R Block, TaxSlayer and TaxAct of having embedded code in their Web sites known as “pixels” that allowed their users’ sensitive tax data to be shared with Meta — the parent company of Facebook —and Google.

The lawmakers call it a “shocking breach of taxpayer privacy by tax prep companies and by Big Tech firms that appeared to violate taxpayers’ rights and have violated taxpayer privacy law.”

The sensitive data included information like federal taxes owed, filing status and names of dependents. Meta told the lawmakers it used the data from tax preparation services for targeted ads, as well as to train its own AI algorithm.

*snip*

[Nevilledog]

1. Article linked by Warren

Congressional Report Finds Meta and Tax Prep Companies “Recklessly” Shared Taxpayers’ Data

https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2023/07/12/congressional-report-finds-meta-and-tax-prep-companies-recklessly-shared-taxpayers-data

Meta and major tax preparation companies inappropriately shared millions of taxpayers’ financial data for years, according to a congressional report released today that was spurred by a Markup article.

Our investigation, which was published in November, revealed how tax filing services including H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer were transmitting data to Facebook’s parent company, Meta, through a tool called the Meta Pixel. The data was sent as taxpayers filed their taxes and included personal information like first and last names, income, filing status, and refund amounts. Some data was also sent to Google through its analytics tools, and Google was also a subject of the congressional investigation.

Today’s report from lawmakers was informed by interviews with representatives of Meta, Google, and major tax prep services. It cited and confirmed The Markup’s report and chided the tax companies for being ​​”shockingly careless with their treatment of taxpayer data” and the tech firms for acting “with stunning disregard for taxpayer privacy.”

The report determined that the tax prep companies installed tracking tools from Meta and Google on their services without a full understanding of how tax data might be collected and used, and that the companies were “still not fully aware of the current status of millions of taxpayers’ data.”

*snip*

[orthoclad]

2. How did they become billionaires, from "free" services?

Selling info is a growth market.

The apex is training their pet AIs on hoovered personal information and stolen human creative work.

My personal peeve is using the unconsenting public to "train" their cars, causing problems, breaking bones, and killing people.

[Mr.Bill]

5. If you use a website you are not buying products from,

chances are you are the product.

[markodochartaigh]

6. That's correct. If you don't have a seat at the table,

you are on the menu.

[orthoclad]

8. Are we not men?

We are prod-ucts.

Are we not men?
Freebie-v-o.

(hope that's not too obscure or retro)

[Mr.Bill]

9. WPOD.

See if anyone gets that one.

[orthoclad]

10. Went over MY head (grin)

[bringthePaine]

3. they should be shut down entirely and assets frozen pending resolution and possible criminal charges

[Old Crank]

4. Jail them

Time to stop giving white collar business criminal bosses skack.

[DENVERPOPS]

7. "Government" tax info

being sold on the private market............

Another Classic FASCISM merger of Government and Corporations......

I would bet my sweet ass, that the public, (and even the Government for that matter) doesn't have knowledge about one thousandth of what is going on behind the scenes by these Corporations........

Katie Bar The Door

WASF