The US government body for tax collection, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), is reportedly mining information from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts of individuals who dodge taxes or do not file at all.
IRS is hit with around a $300bn loss due to tax dodging every year and the latest effort is aimed at curbing such massive depletions, according to Marketplace.
In a bid to expose and audit tax dodgers, the tax collection agency is also using online activity trackers to filter through the massive data accessible on the web.
Further, the data obtained would be added to the already available information on individuals, such as Social Security numbers, health records, banking statements, and property.
In addition, reports also suggest that the agency has been using predictive analytics, which allows integrating massive data in a big site and check for individuals who skip their taxes.
In 2013, IRS had reportedly claimed the right to read email and private data of taxpayers’ on social media accounts without any search warrants.
