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Tax prep firms shared "extraordinarily sensitive" personal data, lawmakers say

Some congressional Democrats say three large tax preparation firms sent “extraordinarily sensitive” information on tens of millions of taxpayers to Facebook parent company Meta over at least two years.

Their Wednesday report urges federal agencies to investigate and potentially go to court over the information H&R Block, TaxAct and TaxSlayer shared with Meta.

The lawmakers tell the IRS, the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the IRS watchdog the findings “reveal a shocking breach of taxpayer privacy.” The tax prep companies say they take the privacy of their customers seriously.

Meta says its system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it's able to detect.