{"id":1972108,"date":"2023-07-13T15:14:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T19:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tax-prep-firms-shared-extraordinarily-sensitive-customer-data-with-big-tech-for-years-congressional-report\/"},"modified":"2023-07-13T15:16:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T19:16:00","slug":"tax-prep-firms-shared-extraordinarily-sensitive-customer-data-with-big-tech-for-years-congressional-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tax-prep-firms-shared-extraordinarily-sensitive-customer-data-with-big-tech-for-years-congressional-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressional report reveals tax prep firms shared sensitive customer data with Big Tech for years."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftax-prep-firms-shared-extraordinarily-sensitive-customer-data-with-big-tech-for-years-congressional-report%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1972108&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Major Tax Preparation Companies Shared Private Financial Information with Big Tech: Congressional Report<\/h2>\n<p>According to a new report from several congressional Democrats, three major tax preparation companies, H&#038;R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tax-prep-firms-shared-extraordinarily-sensitive-customer-data-with-big-tech-for-years-congressional-report\/\" title=\"Congressional report reveals tax prep firms shared sensitive customer data with Big Tech for years.\">shared private financial information<\/a> with Meta and Google when filing taxes online.<\/p>\n<p>The report revealed that Meta was aggressive in using the obtained information to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-weaponization-of-artificial-intelligence-poses-an-ethical-dilemma\/\" title=\"The Weaponization of Artificial Intelligence Poses An Ethical Dilemma\">create targeted advertising<\/a> for users. The shared data could include income, refund amounts, college scholarship amounts, and the use of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">health savings accounts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>David Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University and former consumer protection chief at the Federal Trade Commission, described the situation as a &#8220;five-alarm fire&#8221; and compared it to a significant privacy breach.<\/p>\n<p>The report also highlighted that the data-sharing technology had been in place for many years, potentially up to a decade.<\/p>\n<h3>Lawmakers Call for Prosecution<\/h3>\n<p>In response to the report, lawmakers sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of the Treasury agency that serves as the IRS watchdog. The letter urged these agencies to fully investigate the matter and prosecute any companies or individuals who violated the law.<\/p>\n<p>The letter emphasized that the tax prep companies were careless with taxpayer data and installed Meta and Google tools on their websites without fully understanding the extent of data sharing.<\/p>\n<h3>Public Opinion Poll<\/h3>\n<div id=\"firefly-poll-container\" class=\"one-half\">\n<div class=\"firefly-poll-question\">Should the offending tax prep firms and Big Tech companies be prosecuted?<\/div>\n<div id=\"pollFormBox\" style=\"display: none\">\n<ul>\n<li><label><input type=\"radio\" name=\"answer\" value=\"yes\">Yes<\/label><\/li>\n<li><label><input type=\"radio\" name=\"answer\" value=\"no\">No<\/label><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"firefly-poll-disclaimer\">\n\t\t\tCompleting this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at any time. You also agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/about\/privacy-policy\/\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/about\/terms-service\/\">Terms of Use<\/a>.\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"firefly-poll-results\" style=\"display: none\">\n<div id=\"firefly-poll-results-yes\" style=\"width: 0%\">\n\t\t\tYes: 0% (0 Votes)\n\t\t<\/div>\n<div id=\"firefly-poll-results-no\" style=\"width: 0%\">\n\t\t\tNo: 0% (0 Votes)\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The findings of the report were described as a shocking breach of taxpayer privacy by tax prep companies and Big Tech firms. The letter was signed by several Democratic senators and representatives who called for a thorough investigation into the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Representatives from TaxSlayer and H&#038;R Block responded to the report, with TaxSlayer stating that it contained false or misleading statements. H&#038;R Block mentioned that they have taken action to prevent data sharing.<\/p>\n<p>Meta, on the other hand, stated that advertisers should not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tax-filing-software-sent-sensitive-user-information-to-facebook-report\/\" title=\"Tax Filing Software Sent Sensitive User Information to Facebook: Report\">send sensitive information<\/a> through their Business Tools and that they educate advertisers on proper setup to prevent such occurrences.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/tax-prep-firms-shared-extraordinarily-sensitive-customer-data-big-tech-years-congressional-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Western Journal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three tax preparation firms, H&amp;R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer, reportedly shared private financial data with Meta and Google while filing taxes online. Congressional Democrats revealed this in a recent report. The report also highlighted Meta&#8217;s aggressive use of the acquired information to tailor advertisements for users, as per the Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":1972109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1972108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1972108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1972109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1972108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1972108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1972108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}