Report: Tax Filing Websites Sent Facebook Sensitive Financial Info

In recent months, Facebook has come under fire for gathering too much personal info from users through its Meta Pixel tool. This feature is included on countless sites around the web, including medical log-in portals, banking institutions, and more platforms capable of sending sensitive data to the social media giant. The latest shoe to drop in this scandal occurred this week when it was reported that tax filing websites have also been sending financial data to Facebook.

According to a report from The Markup, some of this sensitive information includes users’ names, email addresses, filing status, refund amounts, dependents’ college scholarship amounts, and information related to users’ income. Thankfully, after this report was released, several tax filing companies deactivated the Meta Pixel feature.

“We did NOT know and were never notified that personal tax information was being collected by Facebook from the Pixel,” said Meghan McConnell, a spokesperson for tax prep company Ramsey Solutions. “As soon as we found out, we immediately informed TaxSlayer to deactivate the Pixel from Ramsey SmartTax.”

It’s telling how quickly these companies have tried to distance themselves from Facebook once this report came to light. The social media giant has a toxic reputation for mishandling user data, and with scandals like this, that isn’t likely to change anytime soon.




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