With the new year, if you’re a worker in the United States, it also means it’s time to start preparing your tax returns. While you may be scrambling to get your W‑2 and other tax information together for this coming year, you might have previous tax returns lying around. On Prolific, Turkopticon has seen a number of tasks asking individuals to provide previous tax returns for AI‑learning purposes. It is important to note that the name of the requestor varies.
While this may seem like easy money, we strongly advise you to avoid these tasks and report them to Prolific for requesting unauthorized PII. U.S. tax returns typically contain your Social Security number, name, and address. Using this information, identity thieves can file your tax return before you do, steal your refund, and possibly use the data to gain access to your bank accounts and other financial information.
While these tasks may try to convince you that simply using the black highlighter tool in Adobe Acrobat is enough for a redaction, selecting the line, copying it, and then pasting it into another document reveals the information. Correctly redacting documents, especially digital ones, takes knowledge and skill. Keep your identity safe by avoiding these tasks. Report them to Prolific and block the “researcher.” Data workers already face wage‑theft risks; don’t let thieves steal your identity, too!
Article by C.S Jackson