Leaderboard

If I, as a tax preparer, shared any of this personal data with anyone it would be considered an ethical violation under circ 230 and my professional standards. Why is the IRS not cracking down and fining these software companies when the agency has other ridiculous standards for us such as the size of micro-shredded chips and all the various other rules for safeguarding taxpayers' data and privacy? This is infuriating!

Exactly. What Judy says. There is a confirmation hearing coming up for a new IRS Commissioner. Perhaps we should send an email to our Senators and ask them to ask the new commissioner designate about this situation and his plans about it moving forward. If IRS lets them get away with this, we will have no good reason to try to persuade our clients that their personal data included in their tax return is safe with the IRS. Tom Longview, TX

Let's say that you have 3 computers but each one is a stand alone computer. Your password is checked by each computer independently. In most cases, you only need to have the computer you are using on and everything will work. On a domain, there is a server, and the other computers are workstations. When you log on to the workstation, the server verifies your user name and password. In the case of ATX, you install the server software for ATX on the server and most likely that server holds the clients' data. If the server is down, you don't have access to your clients data. The advantage is that everybody in the office uses the same data repository and everybody has access to all the clients (if needed). You don't need a domain to run ATX server but the computers need to be connected to each other and be using the same IP subnet, but having a domain is better when you a few computers. Technically, you can install the server portion on laptop running windows 10/11 and that becomes, NOT the server for the domain, but the server for ATX. Then you can connect other desktops, laptops or servers to that laptop and they are the subordinates of the laptop running the ATX server software. Keep in mind that the laptop still reports to the domain server (controller). Please ignore this last paragraph if needed.

Curious - what does it mean, 'on a domain?' I thought there were only desktop or server choices. I have a 'domain name' for my site but, since ATX is not cloud-based, I'm having trouble understanding this situation. Would you explain for this simpleton?

Why would you do that and make your situation more complicated?

"Major tax filing services such as H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer have been quietly transmitting sensitive financial information to Facebook when Americans file their taxes online, The Markup has learned. The data, sent through widely used code called the Meta Pixel, includes not only information like names and email addresses but often even more detailed information, including data on users’ income, filing status, refund amounts, and dependents’ college scholarship amounts. The information sent to Facebook can be used by the company to power its advertising algorithms and is gathered regardless of whether the person using the tax filing service has an account on Facebook or other platforms operated by its owner, Meta. " Surprise, Surprise! Another reason to never use Facebook!

If you want to see something scary try this, with your smartphone being closed, the say any of the following words: Thinning hair cellulitis receding hairline Then open Facebook and you’ll start seeing ads for hair transplant, cosmetic surgery etc..

Think of Meta Pixels as next generation programmable cookies, which Meta provides to business users to "enhance the users online experience" with the information then being shared with Meta, which includes Facebook, Instagram and to a lesser extent Whatsapp. Meta Pixels are apparently very hard to avoid and very difficult to get rid of. Supposedly Google some similar tracking but not at this depth. "The Markup found sensitive data sent to Facebook on the Education Department’s federal student aid application website, crisis pregnancy websites, and the websites of prominent hospitals. " "The Markup tested the websites of Newsweek’s top 100 hospitals in America. On 33 of them we found the tracker, called the Meta Pixel, sending Facebook a packet of data whenever a person clicked a button to schedule a doctor’s appointment. The data is connected to an IP address—an identifier that’s like a computer’s mailing address and can generally be linked to a specific individual or household—creating an intimate receipt of the appointment request for Facebook." Unless we go completely off grid or avoid other parties websites like the plague we are all being tracked.