Lawsuit Says H&R Block, Meta, Google Used Spyware to Share Taxpayer Financial Data

SAN FRANCISCO — A putative class action accuses H&R Block, Meta and Google of violating the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by jointly scheming to install spyware on the H&R Block site to harvest personal information from customers’ tax returns for profit.

The Sept. 27 complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, says defendants used the taxpayer data for direct-to-consumer advertising and to train Meta’s AI algorithms.

Justin Hunt filed the lawsuit in the wake of a July 2023 congressional report which found “a shocking breach of taxpayer privacy” when tax preparation …