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They didn't share financial information, they used meta and google analytics on their sites, which can leak financial information by showing what page the user

They didn't share financial information, they used meta and google analytics on their sites, which can leak financial information by showing what page the user was on (e.g. pages specific to certain deductions or benefits.) Most people here in the comments clearly didn't read the article. It's not like meta was buying up people's tax returns. Just negligence on the part of these tax sites.

gopuck16 3y ago
Its on tax companies to do the due diligence on the users part to make sure they do not leak any taxpayer information. Its private information! And meta and google analytics means there is data exchange, why do they want to do any "analytics" on people's personal data? Remove any and all analytics on tax websites. Why are you straight up attacking the people by saying "Most people here in the comments clearly didn't read the article". They clearly did, understand and have full right to ask questions.
- slashdev 3y ago
  Analytics is normal practice in any web application. However, using third party analytics in sensitive web applications is a bad idea. It is leaking private information, as you correctly point out. > Why are you straight up attacking the people by saying "Most people here in the comments clearly didn't read the article". They clearly did, understand and have full right to ask questions. At the time I wrote this comment, most people had clearly not read the article. Currently it still seems like a huge number of people still haven't since they're talking about things like the sale of tax information to meta, or why meta would want your tax information. There was no sale, meta likely didn't even know they had this information. It was just negligence. That's not attacking people, it's calling a spade a spade, which I will do without trepidation or remorse.
  - lukeschlather 3y ago
    > There was no sale Maybe, maybe not. I think it merits investigation. Even if this was accidental I think it is still criminal negligence and should be prosecuted.
  - pixl97 3y ago
    > There was no sale, meta likely didn't even know they had this information. This doesn't matter. If I did the same with your medical records HIPAA wouldn't give two shits. I improperly secured data, end of story. Even then you're depending on Meta telling us the truth (Of course I didn't look at that data, signed Mark). And even then you're depending on that data remaining secure and not getting piped off somewhere else.
    - slashdev 3y ago
      Meta is not the one at fault here. This is like blaming the garbage collector for you throwing out classified documents. Maybe they looked, maybe they didn't. But it's on you, not them. I mean it is on them too if they took advantage of it, but it's not obvious that's what happened here. It looks like gross negligence on the part of these tax web applications at minimum.
      - adeelk93 3y ago
        Not complying with the tax prep company’s requests is a bit suspect - we’ll see what happens, but it wouldn’t be impossible that Meta knew they had sensitive data and were taking advantage of it.
    - throw10920 3y ago
      Completely false. It absolutely matters a ton. I can block Facebook analytics with client-side tools. I can't do anything about my tax preparer directly sending my tax data to Facebook, and that's a much larger problem.
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  > Remove any and all analytics on tax websites. Really ought to remove Corporate Analytic Software from all sites. Is there an open-source alternative to handing over your entire site and all your users to the Big Two?
JohnFen 3y ago
> It's not like meta was buying up people's tax returns. Just negligence on the part of these tax sites. Meta and the rest are at fault for using the data they gather from these analytics for their own purposes. This is not a new problem, and is why I block analytics scripts and data connections to Meta/Google/etc.
- slashdev 3y ago
  That is part of the reason they offer these services for free. Number one it's about supporting their ads businesses, but they also use it for other things to further their own objectives. People should stop using these analytics services, they're not even that good.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    > People should stop using these analytics services, they're not even that good. I agree, but that's not something that's going to happen. What do site operators care? They aren't the ones paying the price. So the practical result is that we have to protect ourselves from the web sites. I do this by blocking domains that belong to analytics providers, and don't allow most Javascript to execute in my browser.
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago
It says "tracking pixels revealed ... full name, address, and date of birth". If these pixels are that powerful, they can probably reveal income figures too.
- shortcake27 3y ago
  There was a point in time where the Facebook pixel by default tracked every event on every form field. So yeah, they absolutely had detailed income figures - the had the whole return.
kube-system 3y ago
Negligent sharing is still sharing. There is a lot of negligence in software development and we should be better as an industry. It may be standard practice to hastily integrate software without considering legal compliance, but it shouldn't be.
smsm42 3y ago
The AP article says: That data came to Meta through its Pixel code, which the tax firms installed on their websites to gather information on how to improve their own marketing campaigns. In exchange, Meta was able to access the data to write targeted algorithms for its own users. https://apnews.com/article/irs-taxpayer-tax-preparation-meta-congress-9315cfca7a0942ab89f765d183fbf822 https://apnews.com/article/irs-taxpayer-tax-preparation-meta... Looks like very much more than "just negligence". Looks like deliberate private data usage without the consent of the people involved.

gopuck16 3y ago

Its on tax companies to do the due diligence on the users part to make sure they do not leak any taxpayer information. Its private information! And meta and google analytics means there is data exchange, why do they want to do any "analytics" on people's personal data? Remove any and all analytics on tax websites. Why are you straight up attacking the people by saying "Most people here in the comments clearly didn't read the article". They clearly did, understand and have full right to ask questions.

slashdev 3y ago
Analytics is normal practice in any web application. However, using third party analytics in sensitive web applications is a bad idea. It is leaking private information, as you correctly point out. > Why are you straight up attacking the people by saying "Most people here in the comments clearly didn't read the article". They clearly did, understand and have full right to ask questions. At the time I wrote this comment, most people had clearly not read the article. Currently it still seems like a huge number of people still haven't since they're talking about things like the sale of tax information to meta, or why meta would want your tax information. There was no sale, meta likely didn't even know they had this information. It was just negligence. That's not attacking people, it's calling a spade a spade, which I will do without trepidation or remorse.
- lukeschlather 3y ago
  > There was no sale Maybe, maybe not. I think it merits investigation. Even if this was accidental I think it is still criminal negligence and should be prosecuted.
- pixl97 3y ago
  > There was no sale, meta likely didn't even know they had this information. This doesn't matter. If I did the same with your medical records HIPAA wouldn't give two shits. I improperly secured data, end of story. Even then you're depending on Meta telling us the truth (Of course I didn't look at that data, signed Mark). And even then you're depending on that data remaining secure and not getting piped off somewhere else.
  - slashdev 3y ago
    Meta is not the one at fault here. This is like blaming the garbage collector for you throwing out classified documents. Maybe they looked, maybe they didn't. But it's on you, not them. I mean it is on them too if they took advantage of it, but it's not obvious that's what happened here. It looks like gross negligence on the part of these tax web applications at minimum.
    - adeelk93 3y ago
      Not complying with the tax prep company’s requests is a bit suspect - we’ll see what happens, but it wouldn’t be impossible that Meta knew they had sensitive data and were taking advantage of it.
  - throw10920 3y ago
    Completely false. It absolutely matters a ton. I can block Facebook analytics with client-side tools. I can't do anything about my tax preparer directly sending my tax data to Facebook, and that's a much larger problem.
JKCalhoun 3y ago
> Remove any and all analytics on tax websites. Really ought to remove Corporate Analytic Software from all sites. Is there an open-source alternative to handing over your entire site and all your users to the Big Two?

JohnFen 3y ago

> It's not like meta was buying up people's tax returns. Just negligence on the part of these tax sites. Meta and the rest are at fault for using the data they gather from these analytics for their own purposes. This is not a new problem, and is why I block analytics scripts and data connections to Meta/Google/etc.

slashdev 3y ago
That is part of the reason they offer these services for free. Number one it's about supporting their ads businesses, but they also use it for other things to further their own objectives. People should stop using these analytics services, they're not even that good.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > People should stop using these analytics services, they're not even that good. I agree, but that's not something that's going to happen. What do site operators care? They aren't the ones paying the price. So the practical result is that we have to protect ourselves from the web sites. I do this by blocking domains that belong to analytics providers, and don't allow most Javascript to execute in my browser.

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y ago

It says "tracking pixels revealed ... full name, address, and date of birth". If these pixels are that powerful, they can probably reveal income figures too.

shortcake27 3y ago
There was a point in time where the Facebook pixel by default tracked every event on every form field. So yeah, they absolutely had detailed income figures - the had the whole return.

kube-system 3y ago

Negligent sharing is still sharing. There is a lot of negligence in software development and we should be better as an industry. It may be standard practice to hastily integrate software without considering legal compliance, but it shouldn't be.

smsm42 3y ago

The AP article says: That data came to Meta through its Pixel code, which the tax firms installed on their websites to gather information on how to improve their own marketing campaigns. In exchange, Meta was able to access the data to write targeted algorithms for its own users. https://apnews.com/article/irs-taxpayer-tax-preparation-meta-congress-9315cfca7a0942ab89f765d183fbf822 https://apnews.com/article/irs-taxpayer-tax-preparation-meta... Looks like very much more than "just negligence". Looks like deliberate private data usage without the consent of the people involved.