A group of seven lawmakers have called for an investigation into tax preparation firms that shared sensitive taxpayer data with Meta and Google.
They wrote a letter to the heads of prominent agencies, including the IRS, the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and the IRS watchdog.
The data included information on taxpayers’ filing status, income, refund amounts, names of dependents, approximate federal tax owed, which buttons were clicked on the tax preparers’ websites and the names of text entry forms that the taxpayer navigated.
This breach occurred when taxpayers utilized tax software provided by tax preparation companies, with Meta gaining access to the information through its Pixel code. The tax firms had installed this code on their websites to collect data for enhancing their marketing campaigns. In exchange for access to this valuable information, Meta was able to create targeted algorithms for its own users.
Meta and Google have said that they did not use the information to track users on the internet. But the lawmakers insist that the data sharing could violate federal law and could result in billions of dollars in criminal liability to the firms. They are also calling for the creation of an electronic free-file system for submitting tax returns that would be run by the government.
The sources for this piece include an article in APNews.
