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That's your prerogative, but you're doing a disservice to anyone less technical to yourself who you advise to do the same. This pilot is, in its current form, b

That's your prerogative, but you're doing a disservice to anyone less technical to yourself who you advise to do the same. This pilot is, in its current form, better than what the vast majority of people use to file their taxes. If you're already super-privacy-sensitive in your choice of tax-filing software, then great, you do you, but I'd wager that upwards of 99% of taxpayers don't know or care about this and definitely aren't choosing their tax-filing solution based on it. Maybe some of those people are getting better privacy than this, incidentally, but if so, it's not because they are seeking that out.

JohnFen 3y ago
I'm not advising anyone else about how they deal with their taxes, so I'm doing nobody a disservice. If not wanting to have my data exposed to yet another data broker makes me "super-privacy-sensitive", then so be it. As currently implemented, this program is simply a nonstarter for me because of the use of id.me. I am immensely disappointed because I really want to be able to file my taxes in the way this program is aimed. Well, what I actually want is for the IRS to compute my taxes for me and send me a bill, but this would be better than nothing.
- sanderjd 3y ago
  It does indeed make you "super-privacy-sensitive". It's hard to see that from within our bubble here, but this is absolutely the case. I'm also "super-privacy-sensitive", though less than you and others here, merely by virtue of being aware of this kind of issue at all, and strongly agreeing with the general sense here that people should care about this. But people broadly just ... don't ... care about this, regardless of what we think. I'm also disappointed that I can't use this this year, because I'm not in one of the pilot states. But that's what makes it a pilot program! It's explicitly not intended to be used by everyone at this stage. If this were to become required for everyone, and still leaked tons of data to a third-party at that point, then I would be right there with all of you that it's unacceptable. But we're far from that point.
- mixmastamyk 3y ago
  Indeed. They can process my paper forms at great expense until they stop this bullshit.
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    What "bullshit"? Giving you a better and more privacy-preserving system than is currently available via any other means? I truly can't understand the level of entitlement and off-kilter worldview that leads to a statement like this! Some people just can't be pleased.
    - mixmastamyk 3y ago
      > better and more privacy-preserving False and false. No wonder you can't understand? I will never participate in facial recognition to file my taxes. Never. I'd rather go to jail. I've filed online in a foreign country and it was a breeze. California as well... breezy enough. Neither required privacy invasion by a malicious third-party. It's time to ask yourself, what exactly are you rooting for here? Your creepy insults come off as very self-serving.
      - sanderjd 3y ago
        To answer your last question: I'm rooting for launching a pilot of a public system that is better than the for-profit alternatives used by the large majority of people. What I want long term is for filing taxes to no longer be a difficult and error-prone process that everyone dreads doing each year. In order to achieve that, I believe it is necessary for it to stop being such a cash cow, with its profits used on tons of advertising to make people believe it's normal that it's so hard to do this and lobbying to maintain (or worsen) that status quo. I'd ask you to consider how the companies with the dominant products in this space afford the "file for free" products that most people use. Perhaps it is altruism? Or maybe it's the normal way that companies offer free products that collect a lot of personal information, by profiting off that data. I'm incredibly sympathetic to people here who don't want to personally use this until it is no longer using ID.me (I may well make the same choice if this were available at all in my state this year), but I'm incredibly unsympathetic to criticizing this pilot program for not waiting until this problem (which the vast majority of people don't care about) to be solved.

JohnFen 3y ago

I'm not advising anyone else about how they deal with their taxes, so I'm doing nobody a disservice. If not wanting to have my data exposed to yet another data broker makes me "super-privacy-sensitive", then so be it. As currently implemented, this program is simply a nonstarter for me because of the use of id.me. I am immensely disappointed because I really want to be able to file my taxes in the way this program is aimed. Well, what I actually want is for the IRS to compute my taxes for me and send me a bill, but this would be better than nothing.

sanderjd 3y ago
It does indeed make you "super-privacy-sensitive". It's hard to see that from within our bubble here, but this is absolutely the case. I'm also "super-privacy-sensitive", though less than you and others here, merely by virtue of being aware of this kind of issue at all, and strongly agreeing with the general sense here that people should care about this. But people broadly just ... don't ... care about this, regardless of what we think. I'm also disappointed that I can't use this this year, because I'm not in one of the pilot states. But that's what makes it a pilot program! It's explicitly not intended to be used by everyone at this stage. If this were to become required for everyone, and still leaked tons of data to a third-party at that point, then I would be right there with all of you that it's unacceptable. But we're far from that point.
mixmastamyk 3y ago
Indeed. They can process my paper forms at great expense until they stop this bullshit.
- sanderjd 3y ago
  What "bullshit"? Giving you a better and more privacy-preserving system than is currently available via any other means? I truly can't understand the level of entitlement and off-kilter worldview that leads to a statement like this! Some people just can't be pleased.
  - mixmastamyk 3y ago
    > better and more privacy-preserving False and false. No wonder you can't understand? I will never participate in facial recognition to file my taxes. Never. I'd rather go to jail. I've filed online in a foreign country and it was a breeze. California as well... breezy enough. Neither required privacy invasion by a malicious third-party. It's time to ask yourself, what exactly are you rooting for here? Your creepy insults come off as very self-serving.
    - sanderjd 3y ago
      To answer your last question: I'm rooting for launching a pilot of a public system that is better than the for-profit alternatives used by the large majority of people. What I want long term is for filing taxes to no longer be a difficult and error-prone process that everyone dreads doing each year. In order to achieve that, I believe it is necessary for it to stop being such a cash cow, with its profits used on tons of advertising to make people believe it's normal that it's so hard to do this and lobbying to maintain (or worsen) that status quo. I'd ask you to consider how the companies with the dominant products in this space afford the "file for free" products that most people use. Perhaps it is altruism? Or maybe it's the normal way that companies offer free products that collect a lot of personal information, by profiting off that data. I'm incredibly sympathetic to people here who don't want to personally use this until it is no longer using ID.me (I may well make the same choice if this were available at all in my state this year), but I'm incredibly unsympathetic to criticizing this pilot program for not waiting until this problem (which the vast majority of people don't care about) to be solved.