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Tracking Your Taxes
CTealL writes "Apparently Intuit thinks it's okay to share information about taxes with third paries. According to this article,
Intuit is using a third party tracking technology on all tax forms submitted to the IRS. "We could capture your name, your Social Security number or any other information that you willingly pass to a Web site," acknowledged Matt Belkin, who serves as vice president of best practices for Utah marketing giant Omniture, which tracks the online activities of people using Intuit's TurboTax. The IRS disavows any knowledge of this, saying "The IRS does not take a position on Web tracking tools." Makes you wonder where your tax information is going..."
No.. the true moral of the story is.. American corporate greed knows no bounds...
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
shorten it to greed and you got it right. Americans are no worse than other humans.
A HP48GX and a #2 pencil. Straight into the envelope.
It's slower than an e-file, but far more anonymous, providing you don't put a return address on the envelope.
unixkb.com -- articles on practical Unix issues.
Its time to crush this 30 year old unholy alliance between the IRS and the 3 party tax prep companys. The tax system has become like the legal system - a systematic exploitation of the American people to keep an elite in business, in this case IRS agents and retired IRS agents.
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
Identity theft is really becoming more of institution these days. So much information is out there, so quickly can someone hijack someone's life and such a pain in the ass it is to reclaim it. How much of a problem will this have to become before the laws change and identity is more easily secured? Can this be done without some sort of national privacy-killing registry?
"You've just got to trust us," Miller replied, adding that "if we didn't uphold our privacy commitment, we wouldn't be here."
Yeahhh, I'm gonna say no!
Quicken used to be an excellent product around 1997 or so. But then they started adding in-program spam and call home features. And that's when I stopped upgrading.
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
From the article: But he said Omniture doesn't do this. The reason, he said, is that client companies don't authorize Omniture to do it.
So, is he saying that given the opportunity to capture this information, his company would? Semi-distrubing. What about not caputuring this information since it would be wrong to do so? Particulary with recent problems with identity theft.
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the boxed version? The article doesn't appear to say and I'm not quite sure why "web bugs" would be used to collect data on the boxed version. (y'know, like... when you could just capture the keystrokes?)
The /. article is totally misleading. Makes it sound like Intuit is actively tracking the actual returns and trying to compile info on the users, not just tracking and compiling the user process. Until there's something shown that the tracking is done beyond the site, I'm gonna reserve judgement.
If you're gonna get the tin hats out for this, then don't forget that Intuit also makes and sells the number one financial tool for not just businesses, but also personal finances. Quicken and Quickbooks. They don't need your tax return information. All your bank accounts are belong to Intuit. If they wanted to track your buying habits, the checking history of hundreds of thousands of individuals is at their fingertips.
So what's in place to keep a dishonest employee from gathering more information than they should and turning around and selling it to ID thieves?
If identity theft is supposed to be as big of a business as we're told, you'd think that getting a few moles inside these companies would be a top priority.
You'd know the person's income, what they purchased, address etc. That data would be worth a fortune to theives, and there's zero legitimate marketing purpose to them having my SS#.
At least some states have figured out how to file taxes electronicly and directly (and free!) without involving someone with a profit motive in the mix.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
Actually, the IRS position is a smart one. Basically they are saying "Until it gets to us (e-mail or snail mail or whatever) we have no knowledge of it, or its journey, or what happened to it between you and us."
That's fair, damn it.
The issue is with the go-betweens. I say - take 'em to court and smoke 'em.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
They can only get away with this because they haven't been called out on the carpet for it. Single a bank out and make sure all the bloggers get the word. Eventually the news will filter to the MSM that "Bank XYZ" is selling customers' info. Even if they all are doing it, the other banks will get the message that they're next. If the pressure is strong enough, you can get them to change...all it takes is one bank to give in and the rest will follow suit to compete.
The answer is obvious, companies like LexisNexis
I think any web surfer with basic internet knowledge knows that servers can tell what pages you visit, of course, they are afterall giving you the information. If most users find this surprising they should know what else goes on.
/., but for anyone that reads this, *your computer is more secure, just because its in the real world doesn't mean it can't happen, and in the computer world there is cryptographically secure prevention*. People steals cars, break into houses, and commit fraud without computers all the time, don't be afraid of your computer, or stuff online.
Can you trust the person sorting your mail not to open it? about as much as you can trust Intuit, however as soon as its online everyone gets freaked out.
As soon as you let someone else transmit your personal information this can happen. When you submit a form containing your SSN (social security number) the person on the recieving end or anyone in transit can read it, be the form HTML or paper.
Anyone sorting real world mail could open a letter and read it. Any company sending your data over the web could read the data you are sending them, well, of course, you're sending it to them for a reason.
Could a marketing company get people to infiltrate the post office and steal random letters to examine content? of course. Could a marketing company forcefully aquire data (via hacking, etc.) online? of course. But now its much harder, the data is encrypted.
Unfourtunatly most average consumers don't read
(For those who are going to attack me because the article isn't about hacking, the only way for the marketing companies to get data is hacking, Intuit is *not* going to share that info. Either a or b is true: a) its against privacy laws, paper or internet. b) they could do it with your paper forms too, making it a moot point.)
I've never used Intuit's products, but I've hated them since the mid-90s when they made a corporate decision, under the leadership of Bill Campbell, to blow off their Mac user base. "Want new features? Use Windows." Punks. So I guess it's not really surprising that they're screwing over their current customer base like this.
For some reason Apple decided to put Campbell on its board of directors, despite his demonstrated inimicality (yes, that's a word). I own a fair amount of AAPL, and every year I mark my proxy to withhold my votes for that SOB. Sadly, he keeps getting re-elected. Oh well.
Thanks for listening.
By filing with Intuit you have already put your trust into a big corporation. Many Intuit employees have access to your personal information. ONE rogue employee from Intuit could compromise your SSN. Why would you be so trusting of Intuit but not Omniture?
In many countries there is a national sales tax and they do have exceptions for necessities and alot of little strange little rules around this. If you want to simplify taxes, this is not the way to go. If you want to reduce taxes, this is not the way to go.
i des/rc 4045/rc4045-e.html
For example, here in Canada we have the GST. The exceptions are;
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/business/gstgu
So notice that full sized pies are not taxed but single servings are. And I'm sure that other countries have rules like that too.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Then you're stupid.
Physical evidence is harder to 1. tamper with 2. copy, and 3. process, at least where #2 involves a handwritten, sealed letter.
Well this story would be interesting, if it weren't for the fact that people are willingly trusting the companies in question with their personal information. When Intuit asks for your SSN to prepare your return, it isn't exactly covert. If you don't trust them not to disclose it to other companies, then you should probably stop before this step.
Yeah, they use third party web bugs, but they say that they don't send those bugs your private data. If you don't believe them when they say this, see above.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
The only thing more annoying than a Libertarian is an (un|mis)informed Libertarian
Progressive tax, by definition, is a tax the has different rates based on total income. Thus, a sales tax is not progressive. It's a regressive tax.
A regressive tax, in contrast, is a tax that takes a larger percentage of the income of low-income people than of high-income people.
Example: If I make $1,000,000 a year, and you make $75,000. If we both spend $75,000 on however we define sales, we both have to pay the same in taxes. You are being taxed on 100% of your income. I am being taxed on only .075% of mine.
While a regressive tax such as this one that is focused on consumption has benefits, it does not help address income inequities or have any built in system that recognizes the responsibility of people in fortunate circumstnaces have to the larger society and for people not as well off as they are - such as those that make below the poverty line.
Well, for those of us who don't have the benefit of a single W-2 from Burger King, tax preparation software can be very useful.
My wife, who graduated from Pepperdine with a degree in accounting, has used TurboTax for years.
Our greed is eclipsed only by our stupidity.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
Mathematically regressive, perhaps, when you look at income earned versus expenditures.
But when you look at *utility gained* versus expenditures, a sales tax isn't regressive anymore. It's equitable, and some might even say it's progressive if you consider the necessities of life (shelter, food, etc.) to have a higher per dollar utility value than luxury goods.
Sure, that person earns $1M and spends $125k, and gets taxed $31.5k or 3.15% of their income. But what's that other $875k doing? Are they papering their house with it? Stuffing their pillows? Wiping their ass? No, they're socking it away in savings, mostly in investments, thus allowing other people to benefit from it for a time.
Money by itself, in the absence of something to buy with it, serves no purpose and has no value. Why should a person get taxed on the money they don't spend and don't get any real benefit from? That's already a concept implemented in traditional IRAs, where money saved in the IRA is not taxed, but when the money is withdrawn (presumably, when you are about to spend it) you pay taxes then.
Companies, being fictional entities, don't have the capacity to give a shit. The people that run those companies do but choose not to, since they don't really give a damn whether you or live or die so long as they get a cut of your paycheck while you're still drawing breath.
Too many people blame faceless 'companies', 'corporations', or 'governments'. But let's remember: we're getting bent over and reamed by our neighbors. They're the ones fucking us over and fucking us up. Everyone who actively supports the organization that's screwing you is part of the problem whether they revel in it or willfully choose to ignore their complicity.
The ethics of the company, corporation or government is a reflection of its constituent members. If the organization acts maliciously it's because it's composed of malicious human beings - or at least a combination of the malicious and apathetic, and I'm not sure which of these two is morally more debased.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Your assuming that they got that info from the bank. All itmeans is that SOMEWHERE, something change that said to them you might be worth checking out. There are millions of bits of infomation that are tracked about you and even more if you have money and spend it. People watch people that spend money.
I mod everyone down who says "I'll get modded down for this." I hate to disappoint.
Surely you realize that when you try to ascribe any characteristic to a couple hundred million people, you're going way out on a limb?
I could just as well say that Europeans have nasty tendency to lump people together into groups.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I do, I honestly do.
As for you not believing there are any differences, well.. you live in an extremely large fairly homogenous country, which is built upon the foundation of pretending you're all alike.
Just here in Scandinivia there is a distinct difference between Danish and Norwegians. I attribute this mostly to the fact that Denmark has better weather and get to spend more time outside, aswell as Denmark carving out an existance as a small country right next to so many big ones. In norway, we spend most our time inside quite simply because of the fact that it's freezing outside.
"" How about taking the safety labels off everything, and let the stupidity-problem solve itself? """
But the grandparent said that doing you taxes with software was stupid because doing taxes is so simple. I can think of many things that are more simple than filing a tax return, and many of them are done using software. There are very few people who do their own taxes, hence the large tax filing business sector. Being it real people, or software doing the taxes for you. I think the real problem is that people are too afraid to screw up the calculations and what will happen to them if they do.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
" I think the best way to fix the problem is to:
* eliminate income taxes on labor -- People who sell their labor tend to be poorer."
== The only good point you make...
"* make the capital gains tax >50% and tax stock transactions a flat fee of $.01 -- People who simply move money around (which requires no work) should be taxed accordingly."
=== Based on what? You consider 'moving money' NOT WORK? Ya.. so what do you consider those investment offices? Playgrounds? Whether the money is earned by your sweat, or by YOUR money being 'moved around' that was earned by your sweat shouldnt make it more vulneralbe to socialist ideas of taxation.
"* institute a national sales tax in the form of a "progressive sales tax" -- "luxury" items should be taxed at much higher rates than necessities. That new mansion? 100%. That new H2? 50%. That new toaster? 1%."
=== Another stupid idea.. This is been tried before and FAILED (Just another example of liberal thought that demonstrates that for them, history began last week). We had luxury taxes and the 'luxury item industry' tanked. So..you want that boat? More taxes.. And ya know what happened? Sales went thru the floor.. People lost jobs.
Proof that liberalism always produces the opposite of its stated intent..
Ya.. I know this will get mod'd into oblivion..
Why? Because I probably hurt the 'feelings' of the handwringing liberals. If I included 'monkey boy bush' I'd be in Karma heaven...