Democrats call on DOJ to investigate tax sites for sharing financial information with Meta

a group of Democratic senators solicitation from federal law enforcement officials Investigating and prosecuting some of the most popular online tax filing companies for allegedly sharing millions of taxpayers’ financial data with Meta and Google.

On Tuesday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and others asked the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, Treasury Department, and IRS to investigate whether TaxSlayer, H&R Block and TaxAct violated by the taxpayer. privacy laws by sharing sensitive user information with the two tech companies.

Senators also issued their own report Details of the allegations were first made on Wednesday By Marck up last November, The report alleges that for years, tax preparation companies have included meta and Google tracking pixels in their products that reveal identifying information – such as a user’s full name, address and date of birth. The senators also suggest that some of the information provided, such as the forms a user accessed, could be used to show “whether a taxpayer was eligible for certain deductions or exemptions.”

The senators claim that the companies did not obtain user consent to share this information, which may violate laws prohibiting tax preparers from sharing tax return information with third parties, especially since this Most of the data can be used for advertising purposes.

“The findings of this report reveal shocking violations of taxpayer privacy by tax preparation companies and Big Tech firms, which appear to violate taxpayer rights and taxpayer privacy,” the senators said in their Tuesday letter. may violate the law.”

TaxSlayer, H&R Block and TaxAct all confirmed they shared “extensive taxpayer data” via Meta’s pixel, the senators report. Afterwards Marck up Publishing their findings in November, each company said they had “removed or disabled” it from their websites.