Online Tax Filing Sites Probably Illegal

from the oops dept

This just gets better and better. Now that it's way too late to do anything about it, we've already learned that the IRS's database of information from e-filers is not at all secure -- and hasn't been for years. Now comes the additional news that if you used Intuit's or H&R Block's tax filing websites in California, you were probably tracked illegally. It turns out that both sites use a combination of web bugs and cookies to track what you do on their site for the sake of advertising -- violating a California law that prohibits tracking and disclosing your actions on an e-tax filing site. Despite the complaints in the article, it doesn't sound like the companies in question were really doing anything that bad, but anything involving tracking what you do and taxes tends to get people a bit on edge.

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now.
Name
Email	Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
URL
Subject
Comment	this is for spambots, do not use this
Options	Plain Text HTML
	Save me a cookie

Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
Allowed HTML Tags: <a> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>

<< Supreme Court Justices Shouldn't Be Allowed To Use The Internet? | UK Recording Industry Dismisses Promotional Impact Of File Sharing As Nonsense >>

Search Techdirt

And now, a word from our Sponsors..

15% off discount for Techdirt Readers

Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter