Tax filing websites sending financial information to Facebook

Major tax filing services such as H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer have been quietly transmitting sensitive financial information to Facebook when Americans file their taxes online, The Markup has learned.

The data sent through widely used code called the Meta Pixel, includes not only information like names and email addresses but often even more detailed information, including data on users’ income, filing status, refund amounts, and dependents’ college scholarship amounts.

The information sent to Facebook can be used by the company to power its advertising algorithms and is gathered regardless of whether the person using the tax filing service has an account on Facebook or other platforms operated by its owner Meta.

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Is this leaking of information also a potential problem with desktop software which is efiled? I have used Turbo the last couple of years and TaxAct before that using the CD or download to PC.

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This is terrible, and I hope that ALL tax apps read this and take Meta pixels off of their sites.

I have used HR Block Tax software for the past 7-8 years, but I always use the desktop version, not the web version. It seems that the issue only appears with web-based tax software.

'38Packard

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