3 ms·

I keep reading these articles. They say that tax sites "shared" or "gave" user data via active pixels, but is that really true? Don't these companies receive m

by johnea 3y ago

I keep reading these articles. They say that tax sites "shared" or "gave" user data via active pixels, but is that really true? Don't these companies receive money to host the pixels? Didn't these companies actually sell user data? "Giving" and "sharing" are not the same as "selling", yet not one article I've read indicated whether the tax prep compaies received payment for the user data. Does anyone know?

JKCalhoun 3y ago
My Occam's razor take would be that Google Analytics (and whatever Facebook have) are running on the sites and this is how financial information is being gathered. A generous explanation is that the tax sites were inadvertently offering up this data as a result of the whole analytics buy-in. But you would expect a site dealing with tax info would not be that stupid/naive to allow 3rd party code on their sites without knowing exactly what the repercussions of that are. I could just be blowing smoke out of my ass though.
- johnea 3y ago
  Well, your intuition was good. Apparently blowing ass smoke was exactly the strategy one company pursued when questioned about the pixels: ...a spokesperson for Ramsey Solutions, said in an email that the company “implemented the Meta Pixel to deliver a more personalized customer experience.” “We did NOT know and were never notified that personal tax information was being collected by Facebook from the Pixel,” Of course, "a more personalized customer experience". Well duh, everybody needs that! "the whole analytics buy-in" is really the issue isn't it? The internet giants are making billions in a surveillance economy, that in the US is a blatant violation of the constitution's 4th amendment. But, nobody really cares about that do they? Well, except the 2nd amendment, because if we aren't armed to the teeth the libtards are coming to take away our burgers! We do live in interesting times...

by johnea 3y ago

JKCalhoun 3y ago

My Occam's razor take would be that Google Analytics (and whatever Facebook have) are running on the sites and this is how financial information is being gathered. A generous explanation is that the tax sites were inadvertently offering up this data as a result of the whole analytics buy-in. But you would expect a site dealing with tax info would not be that stupid/naive to allow 3rd party code on their sites without knowing exactly what the repercussions of that are. I could just be blowing smoke out of my ass though.

johnea 3y ago
Well, your intuition was good. Apparently blowing ass smoke was exactly the strategy one company pursued when questioned about the pixels: ...a spokesperson for Ramsey Solutions, said in an email that the company “implemented the Meta Pixel to deliver a more personalized customer experience.” “We did NOT know and were never notified that personal tax information was being collected by Facebook from the Pixel,” Of course, "a more personalized customer experience". Well duh, everybody needs that! "the whole analytics buy-in" is really the issue isn't it? The internet giants are making billions in a surveillance economy, that in the US is a blatant violation of the constitution's 4th amendment. But, nobody really cares about that do they? Well, except the 2nd amendment, because if we aren't armed to the teeth the libtards are coming to take away our burgers! We do live in interesting times...