Victor Roberts <
vicroberts@earthlink.net> wrote:
The article sems to say that only data from online tax prep sites had
been shared, so perhaps this issues does not impact tax softyware that
is downloaded and used on a computer
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/tech/tax-prep-companies-taxpayer-data-google-meta/index.html
Why not? Software downloaded onto one's computer repeatedly "phones
home" to download the software company's own advertising and to
encourage the user to update. There's snapshots of how the software is
being used for, er, improvements and better efficiency in the user
interface. It's hard to find commercial software that isn't constantly
checking its network connection and is designed to be used purely off
line.
There's nothing new here. Marketing has always been very good at drawing inferences about consumers and getting enough about it right that
targeted advertising really works. In a two-unit apartment building I
lived in years ago, the mail wasn't placed in mailboxes; everything was
shoved through the slot in the outside door. We saw each other's mail.
The wife upstairs was pregnant twice during the period in which we were neighbors. Somehow she started getting advertising for newborns like
diapers and other supplies. They just knew she was in her 7th and 8th
months. It was uncanny. This was probably from mailing lists.
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