TurboTax Privacy Statement

At Intuit, we place the highest importance on respecting and protecting the privacy of our customers. Our relationship with you is our most important asset. We want you to feel comfortable and confident when using our products and services and with entrusting your personal and tax return information to us.

Scope

This statement applies to the TurboTax Web sites and services that display or link to this statement.

Information Collection

When you purchase a TurboTax product or service, we ask you for information such as name, address, and telephone number that helps us confirm that your payment information is correct. This information is used to create or maintain your Intuit account information. We may obtain additional information about you, such as demographic information, from commercially available sources.

When you register, we require that you create user credentials consisting of a user id and password and designate a security question and associated answer. When you choose to participate in one of the user forums (such as TurboTax Online Live Community), we will ask you to choose a nickname. We use that information to grant you access to the services you have selected or to label the answers that you may provide. We also collect an e-mail address so that we may send communications such as order confirmation or information about the status of your return. We may also send or display surveys about our products and services which you may choose to answer.

In order to prepare your return, to file your return, to provide advice about tax matters, and/or to provide an audit defense service, we collect information about your income, deductions, credits, dependents, etc. Collectively, this information is known as tax return information.

When you visit our Web sites we may collect information about the pages you view, the links you select or actions you take using the standard information that your browser sends to each Web site you visit such as IP address, browser type, and the previously visited Web page.

We collect your personal information and your permission when you subscribe to one of our newsletters.

Information Use

We do not sell or rent your personal or tax return information to anyone.

We do not share your personal or tax return information with anyone outside of Intuit for their promotional or marketing use.

We do not share your tax return information inside of Intuit for promotional or marketing use.

Intuit uses your personal information to manage your account, to contact you and to operate, improve, and deliver our products and services, including Web sites. We use your personal information to provide you with information and services you request, to tell you about Intuit products and services, and to give you a customized, interactive experience as you use our products. We use your personal information to charge you for the products and services you purchase. We use the contact information you provide to communicate with you. We use your tax return information to prepare and file your return, and provide related assistance and services.

As part of the tax filing process, the IRS requires Intuit to request the e-mail address of the person electronically filing a tax return and, if an email address is collected, provide it to the IRS. As a method for detecting fraud in connection with the electronic filing of tax returns transmitted via the Internet, the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") requires Intuit to provide to the IRS the Internet Protocol ("IP") information (e.g., IP Address, IP Date, IP Time and IP Time Zone) of the computer from which the return originated associated with that return.

We use responses to surveys and polls to improve our products and services. We summarize information about your usage and combine it with that of others to learn about the use of Intuit products to help us develop new products and services. This information is collected in such a way that it can not be used to identify an individual.

We retain copies of your completed and filed tax returns as required by IRS and state regulations and in accordance with Intuit’s Records and Information Management Policy. This information may also be used to perform analysis relating to your claims under our guarantees, or to provide you with a copy of your returns for your convenience.

We may use service companies on our behalf to perform services for you but these companies are not allowed to use your information for their own purposes.

We may access and/or disclose your information if it is necessary to comply with the law or legal process, to protect or defend Intuit, or act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of TurboTax services or members of the public. For example, we may be required to cooperate with regulators or law enforcement action such as a court order, subpoena or search warrant.

More about Internet Technologies

More about our relationships with third parties

More about TurboTax products and services

Information Access

You may change your account and contact information any time by clicking here. We will ask you to sign in so that others are prevented from viewing or changing your information.

You may change the information in your TurboTax Online tax return until the point you have electronically filed or printed your completed tax return. You must sign in to make those changes. After that, changes may be made by the procedures set up by the IRS or state tax agency.

You may unsubscribe from our newsletters by using the unsubscribe link provided in the newsletter sent to you.

You may change your contact preferences any time by clicking here.

Information Security

Intuit works to protect your personal information and tax return information from loss, misuse or unauthorized alteration by using industry-recognized security safeguards, coupled with carefully developed security procedures and practices. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with applicable law and federal standards. We use both internal and external resources to review our security procedures. Whenever we prompt you to transmit sensitive information, such as tax return or credit card information, we support the encryption of your information as it is transmitted to us. Our employees are trained and required to safeguard your information.

As an approved transmitter of electronically filed federal and state income tax returns, Intuit follows stringent security guidelines to protect the security and privacy of your tax return information. Electronically filed tax returns are encrypted during transmission to us. When transmitting your tax return from Intuit to the IRS and State Tax Filing Agencies, we use the most secure transmission technology supported by those agencies.

What you can do to protect your personal information

You can take steps in your use of the Internet and online services that will help protect your personal information.

• Use a firewall to prevent unauthorized access to your computer.
• Use a virus-checking program and keep it up to date.
• Keep your operating system and programs up-to-date.
• If you share a computer with others, close all active programs and log-out before leaving the computer.
• If you use file-sharing programs, be sure to restrict all other folders or directories to "no share".
• Choose a user id that is not the same as a government issued identifier or your birthday or some other date or word that is either easily guessed or could cause harm if someone else learned it.
• Choose a strong password using a combination of letters, numbers and special characters that are meaningful to you and yet not easily guessed by someone else. Keep your password private.
• Do not trust email requests for personal information. On Web sites, look for the lock symbol which signifies a secure site before supplying personal information. If in doubt, ask.
• When using open Internet chat and forum services, do not supply personal or financial information. When using tax advice chat and similar services, do not supply more information than necessary to define your problem.
• Read privacy statements to learn how your information will be collected and used.

See http://www.staysafeonline.info/basics/consumers.html for more information.

Collection and use of Children’s Personal Information

Intuit’s TurboTax products are intended to be used by adults. Intuit may collect personal information about children as part of the tax return preparation process. The use of tax return information is restricted and any information contained within the return can only be disclosed or used in accordance with applicable laws: to prepare, assist in preparing, or obtain or provide services in connection with preparing your tax return; or to provide you with the products and services you specifically request or consent to.

Communication with us about Privacy

If you have privacy-related questions that are not addressed here, please contact the Privacy Team

Or write to us at:

Intuit is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to enable individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information by promoting the use of fair information practices. To demonstrate our commitment to your privacy, we have had our practices reviewed by TRUSTe. The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through Intuit Web sites and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from the site. If you contact us for a privacy-related issue and we do not respond or if your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, please contact TRUSTe. TRUSTe will serve as a liaison with Intuit to resolve your concerns.

If we make material changes to any of our privacy policies or practices regarding personal information, we will update our statement and post a notice on our TurboTax.com Web site 30 days before they take effect.

More about Internet technologies

Automatic TurboTax Product Update

Intuit works year-round to make TurboTax better. From time to time, we make available updates to TurboTax for customers to download. An update might include a time saving new feature, minor repairs to keep software running smoothly, or timely information relevant to customers' tax preparation.  Upon installing TurboTax, a Windows Service will be installed named the “Intuit Update Service.” This service will run on your system in the background regardless of whether TurboTax is currently running. If you select the “automatically download” option for updates the Intuit Update Service will periodically check Intuit’s servers via the Internet for updates to TurboTax.   If an update is available, it will be automatically downloaded and you will be prompted to install that update the next time your start TurboTax.  If you select the “ask me first” option for updates, the Intuit Update Service will run in the background, but will not check Intuit’s servers for updates to TurboTax until you confirm that you want it to check.  Whether “automatically download” and “ask me first” is selected, non-personally identifiable information about your computer system and the update process will be sent to Intuit.  Intuit will use this information solely to improve the updating process for our customers.

Financial Reporting

To comply with financial accounting or regulatory reporting requirements, Intuit may collect information associated with non-fee based transactions and activities.  In the case of non-fee transactions, such as a non-fee E-file or non-fee first Print only activity, a transmission may be sent to our payment system as a zero dollar based transaction.  This transmission does not contain any personally identifiable information or tax return information and is used strictly for Intuit-internal reporting purposes. 

Technologies on our Web site

We use a variety of technologies on our Web site. Among these are cookies, which are pieces of information that our Web sites provide to your browser. Cookies also allow us to customize your visit to our Web site by recognizing you, for example, when you return to the site. Cookies allow us to track overall site usage and determine areas users prefer. You can choose to decline cookies while at our Web site, however, this may limit your ability to access certain areas of the Web site. Most browsers accept and maintain cookies by default. Check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preference; or, you can find information on popular browsers and how to adjust your cookie preferences at the following websites:

Microsoft Internet Explorer:
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cookies.htm

Opera:
http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/security/privacy/index.dml

Mozilla Firefox:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Cookies

Apple Safari:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Safari/2.0/en/ibr30.html

We may access and set cookies using Web beacons, also known as single-pixel GIFs which are invisible graphical images. These Web beacons tell us useful information regarding our site such as which pages web visitors view.

When we track activity on this or other Intuit Web sites, we collect information such as your IP address, browser type and version, and pages you view. We also keep track of how you get to our sites and any links you click on to leave our sites. We do not track URLs that you type into your browser, nor do we track you across the Internet once you leave our sites. We use your Web site activity to assist you by reducing the need to re-enter your data and to help us resolve technical support issues. We may also use this information to offer you a personalized Web experience, and to tailor our offerings to you. Remember, you control whether you receive Intuit marketing materials.

To assist us in collecting site usage data, we use service providers to place web beacons on specific pages of our site and pass back usage information about that page via the use of cookies to these service providers. Personally identifiable information is not sent to Intuit or our service providers through the use of these cookies or web beacons and all web navigation data is used only in the aggregate to improve our product and site performance.

When we send you e-mails, we may include a single-pixel GIF (web beacon) to determine the number of people who open our e-mails. When you click on a link in an e-mail, we record this individual response to allow us to customize our offerings to you.

Advertising networks that serve ads on our Web site may assign a different cookie to you. The information collected is anonymous and is not linked to your personal information. These cookies may be used to select which ads you see and determine the effectiveness of this advertising. You may choose to decline cookies from third-party ad servers, which Intuit does not control. If you would like to know more about this practice and your choices about not having this information used by third-party ad servers, please click here.

More about our relationships with third parties

Sometimes, we enter into contracts with third parties who assist us by filling customer orders or providing other services. The contracts outline the appropriate use and handling of your personal and tax return information and prohibit third parties from using any of your personal information for purposes unrelated to the product or service for which they've been contracted. Vendors are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information we provide to them.

Additionally, we have business partners that provide services, some of which are co-branded. Partner services and sites are clearly identified. When you request any of these products or services, you are permitting us to provide your personal information to the partner to fulfill your dynamoRequest.

Occasionally, TurboTax products are promoted on the Web sites of another organization. In some instances when you access TurboTax products through the Web site of that other organization, we may provide your personal information back to that specific organization. When we do so, we will tell you at the time we collect your personal information and we will provide you a link to the organization's Privacy Policy.

This Web site may provide links to third-party sites, such as those of our business partners and online advertisers. Because Intuit does not control the information policies or practices of these third parties, you should review their privacy policies to learn more about how they collect and use personal information.

Should we sell, merge or transfer any part of our business, part of that sale may include your personal information. If so, you will have the opportunity to ask not to receive promotional materials following any change of control.

We may use sources outside of Intuit to supplement the personal information you give us. For example, we may validate your address using other sources or we may provide you with demographic, household or non-public personal information. We use this data to help us maintain accuracy and provide you with better products and services.

Intuit and its subsidiaries may exchange personal information, which may include exchange across country borders, about your transactions to fulfill your requests. We may also provide you information about products or services we believe you may be interested in unless you have asked us not to contact you. We offer you the opportunity to review privacy practices at our subsidiaries' Web sites.

More about TurboTax products and services

Preparation and Electronic Filing of Tax Returns. You may use TurboTax products and services to assist you with the preparation and electronic filing of your tax return. "Tax return information" is information that you provide to prepare a tax return using TurboTax. The use and disclosure of tax return information is governed by Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code and many state codes and regulations. Intuit discloses or uses your tax return information only in accordance with applicable laws: to prepare, assist in preparing, or obtain or provide services in connection with preparing your tax return; or to provide you with the products and services you specifically request or consent to.

To provide customer technical support when troubleshooting e-filing related problems, such as acknowledgements or rejected returns, we may ask you to resubmit your tax return to us.

Instant Data Entry. Instant Data Entry allows you to retrieve and enter tax information automatically from sources such as participating employers, brokerages, payroll companies, mortgage companies, and mutual fund companies, directly onto the correct forms in the TurboTax products. When you download information from such tax information providers, you may be required to enter personal information to authenticate you, such as the user name, account number and/or password you normally use to access the information on the participating site. The TurboTax products use this personal information solely for the purpose of providing authentication to the tax information provider and are not stored by TurboTax. The data transmissions between TurboTax and the information sources are encrypted.

Data Transfer. You may import data from your prior year’s TurboTax online or TurboTax desktop products. You may also import data from Quicken or QuickBooks. We use industry recognized security safeguards during the transmission of this data over the Internet.

Tax Refund Processing. Instead of using a credit card, you can choose to apply for refund processing and, upon approval, use your tax refund to pay for your electronic filing and other products and services. This service is offered by Santa Barbara Bank & Trust ("SBBT"). When you apply for refund processing, you are authorizing Intuit to disclose your personal and tax return information to SBBT. You should consult the refund processing application or applicable customer agreement to understand how SBBT will use your personal and tax return information, including the processing and underwriting of your application and detecting, preventing and reporting fraud. Intuit may use the personal information in your refund processing application to contact you about this or other tax-related services.

Payment of Federal Balance Due via Credit Card. If you would like to pay your federal balance due by credit card, the IRS requires your name, Social Security Number, and balance due. If you select the credit card payment option, including credit card payment through electronic filing, you are giving your consent for the TurboTax Online federal product to gather this information from your tax return and transmit it securely to our credit card payment processor. Our payment processing partner uses this information solely to process payment of your federal taxes. If you don't want this information transmitted to our credit card payment partner, we recommend payment by check. You may also be requested to provide your personal information, such as your e-mail address and phone number, which may be used to contact you if there is a question about your payment.

Electronic Archiving of Tax Returns. TurboTax Online will store your tax returns in PDF file format. We do not use the content of your PDF files for any other purpose.

Customer Service and Technical Support. During the Customer Service and Technical Support Process, we request certain personal information including your name, address, phone numbers and e-mail address. We use this personal information to contact you to answer your question or resolve your issue. We may send you a follow-up survey. We do not use this information to tell you about additional products and services.

Internet Chat. We offer various Internet Chat services, for example, to speak with an Intuit support representative or tax advisor. Internet Chat transmissions are encrypted but you should not supply more personal or tax information than is required to address your specific issue A transcript of the session is generated and retained, and may be used to resolve current and potential future questions or issues.

Discussion Boards and Blogs. Discussion Boards, Blogs, and other community oriented functionality enable forum members to communicate with other members. To participate in these, we require that you register with a valid e-mail address. We may use your e-mail address in the event we need to contact you regarding your postings or to inquire about your community online experience. We recommend that care be taken in posting personal information on these message boards or blogs, as any information you post can be viewed or accessed by other users.

Feedback Center. When using our Web site, you can ask us questions and share comments or suggestions with us. Comments and suggestions are not confidential. You may supply a name and email address so we can respond to you directly.

Refer-a-Friend. We provide a "Refer-a-Friend" feature that provides you with the ability to automatically send information about TurboTax to your Friend. Your friend's e-mail address will only be used for the one-time distribution of the information and will not be used for any other purpose.

Tax Calculators. Information entered into the Tax Calculators (e.g., Tax Estimator, W-4 Calculator) is used solely to provide you with estimates of various tax situations. The Tax Calculators do not link the information you enter with your personally identifiable information. Unless otherwise noted in the calculator description or instructions, once you close the tool, none of the information used in these calculations is saved.

Tax Planner. Information entered into the Tax Planner section (e.g., Life Events Planner) of the TurboTax Online products is used solely to provide you with "what if" tax estimates. This information is stored behind a firewall and remains on Intuit's servers and is not sent to the IRS or anyone else.

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