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

[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.”

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