Back to back stories on NPR this morning:
We hate government regulation. Almost as much as we hate the lack of it.
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Like many other people, I use TurboTax to do my taxes, because it’s horrible, but better than everything else. While completing my 2009 return with the online edition, I came across a bit of extra evil they’ve added.
By law, tax preparers and makers of tax software cannot use your personal information for anything other than completing your return. They cannot use it to sell you things. They cannot sell it to other people for marketing purposes. This is a little bit of consumer protection that’s necessary because under standard U.S. privacy laws, you don’t actually have any privacy.
However, they can ask for permission to do these things. Recognizing that most people will sensibly decline to offer such permission, some companies – like Intuit – will attempt to trick you into it. As below:
It’s phrased so that if you are not reading carefully (and please, always read things like this carefully) you will think that by declining to fill out the form that’s just below the screen image above, you are going to miss out on some fabulous options to get your tax refund.
You’re not. There is one option, more fabulous than all the rest, that you should pick: having the IRS transfer your refund into your bank account. What you are really doing by giving your consent to “see all your options” is giving Intuit consent to use your personal information.
You don’t have to do it. If you select the unappealing-sounding “Don’t show me any options” (hey, who doesn’t like options, right?") you proceed to the next screen, where you can file or print your return. Which is really what you want.
It’s slick and kind of evil. One of the key considerations in selecting software for something like tax preparation is trust. Will it be right? Will your information be safe? Will the company stand behind their product and help you if they’ve made an error that results in an error on your taxes?
That’s why most of us select a well-known product like TurboTax rather than Bob’s Amazing Tax Return Maker. Except that you actually have to be careful, because Intuit is trying to trick you into giving them consent to use your information in ways that you probably don’t want. I suppose this creates some revenue for Intuit, but at the expense of trust, which may not be a good trade-off for them in the long term.
What I would really like to see: an online tax preparation created by the IRS that connects directly to their systems, with no shady middleman like Intuit.
Anyway, if you use TurboTax, read everything carefully, and don’t become an Intuit marketing victim.
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I have mixed feelings about Facebook and this comic from The Oatmeal pretty much explains why.
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Error messages like this (from our corporate travel booking system) make me think, “But why? Why can’t I pick the options that actually describe what I need?” (What I really wanted is in the drop-downs.)
Didn’t someone designing this stop and think, “What will users needs to do while interacting with this application?” It’s a small thing but reveals such a user-oblivious mindset.
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I have mixed feelings about Facebook, but I must admit that it is interesting: apparently my entire high school was gay. I’ve gone past the “Oh, I knew it!” group to the “Really?” discoveries. If only we’d all figured it out then…
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