in Newswire Published on October 2, 2023

Class Action Claims H&R Block Secretly Shares Consumers’ Tax Return Info with Meta, Google [UPDATE]

Last Updated on June 24, 2024

Hunt v. Meta Platforms, Inc. et al.

Filed: September 27, 2023 ◆§ 3:23-cv-04953

A class action against H&R Block, Meta and Google claims the online tax service has secretly shared users’ tax return information with the tech giants.

Defendant(s)

Alphabet, Inc. H&R Block, Inc. Meta Platforms, Inc. Google LLC

Law(s)

RICO California Invasion of Privacy Act Wiretap Act

State(s)

California

June 18, 2024 – Data Sharing Lawsuit Against H&R Block, Google, Meta Sent to Arbitration

A federal judge has ordered the plaintiff in the proposed class action lawsuit detailed on this page to handle his claims individually before an arbitrator.

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United States District Judge P. Casey Pitts first granted H&R Block’s motion to compel arbitration in a seven-page order signed on April 11, 2024. The judge found that the plaintiff, in order to use the company’s tax preparation website, was required to agree to H&R Block’s online services agreement, which contains an arbitration provision, and failed to show the agreement between himself and the company was “induced by fraud or unconscionable.”

The clause states that the consumer and H&R Block “agree that all disputes and claims between [them] shall be resolved through binding individual arbitration,” the order relays.

Then, in a six-page order signed on May 24, 2024, Judge Pitts granted motions from Google and Meta to compel arbitration for the same reason he granted the motion from H&R Block.

The plaintiff, in his defense, pointed out that the agreement only covered disputes and claims between himself and H&R Block, and that nonsignatories Google and Meta could compel arbitration of the claims against them only if California law allowed them to do so.

Judge Pits found that, pursuant to California law, Google and Meta had the authority to compel arbitration under an agreement they were not directly involved in because the claims against them were “intimately founded in and intertwined” with H&R Block’s contract.

“[The plaintiff] alleges that H&R Block formed ongoing enterprises with Google and Meta to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity that included fraudulent misrepresentations about the privacy of users’ tax return information,” the judge wrote. “This alleged misconduct could not be more interdependent.”

The lawsuit detailed on this page is paused pending the outcome of the plaintiff’s arbitrations with H&R Block, Google and Meta.

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A proposed class action against H&R Block, Meta Platforms, Google and parent company Alphabet claims the online tax service has secretly shared users’ tax return information with the tech giants.

Are you a California or Pennsylvania resident with a Facebook account who’s used H&R Block for online tax prep? Let us know here.

The 49-page lawsuit alleges H&R Block has “knowingly” installed on its online tax preparation website invisible tracking tools that track visitors as they use the platform and send information furnished during these interactions to Meta and Google without consent.

According to the case, these tools work like “spy cams” to transmit “massive amounts” of highly sensitive data to the tech companies, such as consumers’ names, Social Security numbers, addresses, adjusted gross incomes, filing statuses, refund amounts, deductions, dependents, income properties, dates of birth, health savings account contributions, education expenses and any other information they submitted while preparing or filing a tax return.

The filing says the defendants’ alleged data-sharing practice—which was subject to and confirmed by a congressional investigation in 2022—has intruded on the privacy of tens of millions of consumers and violated federal racketeering and wiretapping laws.

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Per the complaint, Meta and Google collect data on H&R Block users using “unique web codes” known as pixels that operate “secretly and quietly within the background” of the web pages in which they are embedded. The companies offer their proprietary tracking systems—the Meta pixel and Google Analytics (GA), respectively—free of charge to customers like H&R Block, the suit says.

“The collection of data through the use of Google’s GA and Meta’s Pixel has generated enormous financial success for both tech giants,” the filing says, claiming that the companies monetize this information by using it to “better understand consumer behaviors, measure the performance of ad campaigns, and to directly target consumers with additional advertising.”

The complaint goes on to explain that in order to share consumers’ tax return information with third parties in compliance with federal regulations, tax preparers must identify the intended recipient and obtain valid consent, among other requirements. At no point did H&R Block obtain valid consent to disclose users’ tax return information to third parties, and its privacy notice fails to inform customers that their data would be sent to Meta and Google, the complaint contends.

As the case tells it, H&R Block’s website has used the Meta Pixel to transmit consumer data without users’ knowledge or permission since at least 2015.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States and its territories who submitted personal information to H&R Block for the purpose of online tax return preparation during the time the Meta Pixel and/or Google Analytics existed on the online tax service’s websites.

Are you a California or Pennsylvania resident with a Facebook account who’s used H&R Block for online tax prep? Let us know here.

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