Tax groups shared ‘extraordinarily sensitive’ data with Meta: report

Three prominent tax groups shared “extraordinarily sensitive” information from tens of millions of taxpayers with Facebook parent company Meta, who used it for “for at least a couple of years,” according to a report Wednesday from congressional Democrats.

The lawmakers allege Meta used private data obtained from H&R Block, TaxAct and TaxSlayer to boost its algorithms for targeted advertising of its users. This shared data to Meta, along with other tech companies, may violate taxpayer privacy laws, which state taxpayer data can only be shared with auxiliary service providers, the lawmakers allege.

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The lawmakers who published the report include Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; and Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif.

“The findings of this report reveal a shocking breach of taxpayer privacy by tax prep companies and by Big Tech firms that appeared to violate taxpayers’ rights and may have violated taxpayer privacy law,” wrote the lawmakers. 

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The report states the tax companies shared the data via computer code to Meta, Google and other technology companies. The companies told the lawmakers they used the Meta and Google tools on their websites without a complete understanding of possible shared data.

Meta, in a statement, shifted the blame to advertisers, who they claim violated its policies aimed to stop the sharing of sensitive information.

“We’ve been clear in our policies that advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools,” the statement reads. “Doing so is against our policies and we educate advertisers on properly setting up Business tools to prevent this from occurring. Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect.”

H&R Block, TaxAct and TaxSlayer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The report, which spans 54 pages, was paired with a series of letters calling for investigations that went to the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission.

Meta has faced continued criticism for its breach of user data. The Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion after it sold user data to Cambridge Analytica, a political firm.