[HN Gopher] H&R Block, Meta, and Google allegedly schemed to scr...
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       H&R Block, Meta, and Google allegedly schemed to scrape taxpayer
       data: lawsuit
        
       Author : CharlesW
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2023-10-01 18:50 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gizmodo.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gizmodo.com)
        
       | gundmc wrote:
       | The details of the article seem significantly less exciting and
       | bombastic than the headline claims. If I understand correctly,
       | H&R Block uses Google Analytics (and Meta's equivalent). That's
       | about it?
        
         | abirch wrote:
         | It's as if it was written by the plaintiffs' lawyers.
        
         | jeffbee wrote:
         | You're never going to get rational discourse on this topic
         | because people who don't know what they are talking about have
         | poisoned the conversation by using bombastic language. E.g.
         | "spy cam" that "scans tax documents" does not bear any
         | resemblance to the events in question. People willingly gave
         | their tax returns to H&R Block, who intentionally programmed
         | their site to marshal that data into custom dimensions of
         | Google Analytics.
        
         | handsclean wrote:
         | Sure, and price fixing scandals are "just using email". It's
         | not what they used, it's what they did with it. In this case,
         | what they did with it is share with Google a huge amount of
         | extremely private, legally protected information.
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | If you and I have a legally binding contract that forbids you
           | from sending me a certain class if information, and you then
           | violate that agreement by sending it anyway, have you
           | "shared" that with me, in a way that makes me your co-
           | conspirator?
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | Some previous discussion about H&R Block + Facebook info from
       | when the report came out months back:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33705532
        
       | 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
       | Here is the complaint
       | 
       | https://www.wisnerbaum.com/documents/COMPLAINT-against-Alpha...
       | 
       | https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67832608/hunt-v-meta-pl...
        
       | flashback2199 wrote:
       | The totally free tax filing websites are the sketchiest IMO.
       | Nobody builds and runs a free tax filing service without selling
       | your data to pay for it. But I keep using them bc I'm cheap lol
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-01 23:01 UTC)