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F

IRS Free File / Direct File

Fail
IRS · 🇺🇸 United States
PolicyApp PermissionsNetwork TrafficFirmwareRegulatory
Technical details
Manufacturer: IRS / Free File Alliance

⚠️ The bottom line

4.4 million Americans paid TurboTax for tax filing they were legally entitled to get for free. TurboTax hid the free version from Google. Used dark patterns to steer people to paid products. The FTC made them pay $141 million back. The company the IRS chose to provide free tax filing spent years making sure people couldn't find it.

Legal jurisdiction
🇺🇸 United States (headquarters)
⚠CLOUD Act read more →
US govt can demand your data from this company even if stored overseas
⚠FISA §702 / PRISM read more →
NSA collects stored emails, photos, messages without individual warrants
●Geofence warrants read more →
Police can demand location data for everyone near a crime scene
Spying
0/4 N/A
Is someone spying on me?
Data Sharing
0/4 N/A
Who gets my data?
Security
0/4 N/A
Is it actually secure?
Honesty
2/4 MODERATE
Can I trust what they say?
ACCEPTABLE Moderate concerns. Standard privacy hygiene applies.
1Contradictions
1Critical
0High
0Medium
4Sources
Findings by concern
Honesty 2/4 MODERATE 1 finding
⚠️ criticalmarketing vs regulatory
4.4 million Americans paid TurboTax for tax filing they were legally entitled to get for free. TurboTax hid the free version from Google. Used dark patterns to steer people to paid products. The FTC made them pay $141 million back. The company the IRS chose to provide free tax filing spent years making sure people couldn't find it.

What they claim: IRS Free File promoted as free tax filing for Americans earning under $79,000

What we found: A ProPublica investigation revealed that TurboTax deliberately made its IRS Free File product hard to find in search engines while promoting paid versions. Intuit used deceptive design to steer eligible free filers into paid products. The FTC ordered Intuit to stop its deceptive practices in 2022, and Intuit agreed to pay $141 million in restitution to 4.4 million Americans who were tricked into paying for free tax filing.

Sources