Intuit
Information Technology
68
out of 100. Number 58 of 512, counting from the worst.
Where Intuit does well
- Several genuine consumer protections:
- Tax return data is carved out of Intuit's cross-company data sharing — the terms explicitly exclude 'information furnished to TurboTax in connection with the preparation of an individual tax return' from the 'sharing across the Platform' clause.
- Per its CCPA disclosures, Intuit does NOT 'sell' or 'share' your contact info, SSN, government IDs, account credentials, payment/bank details, or financial data including tax return details — those rows read 'N/A - we do not sell or share this personal information.'
- Annual subscriptions get a renewal reminder with the then-current fee 30-60 days before the term ends, and recurring price changes only take effect next period with a right to unsubscribe.
- California visitors who enable a recognized opt-out mechanism (e.g., Global Privacy Control) are automatically opted out of ad 'sharing', and deletion/access requests are honored via the Privacy Center.
- QuickBooks Desktop subscriptions carry a 60-day money-back guarantee, and TurboTax Advantage cancellation stops the next annual charge.
You cannot sue Intuit in regular court and cannot join a class action.
The fine print
6 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.
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You cannot sue Intuit in regular court and cannot join a class action. Every dispute goes to private arbitration (or small claims), with jury trial rights waived. There is no opt-out clause offered anywhere in the terms, and the arbitration provision survives even after you close your account.
"You and Intuit agree that, except as provided below, any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating in any way to the Platform or this Agreement (a 'Claim') will be determined by binding arbitration or small claims court, instead of courts of general jurisdiction... you and Intuit are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action." ... "You and Intuit agree that each may bring Claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding."
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Even if you replace or expire your credit card, Intuit can pull your new card details directly from the card network and keep charging your subscription — the auto-renew survives your attempt to cut it off at the card level. TurboTax Advantage similarly auto-renews annually in early November, and 'if you already received your product for the current tax year, canceling your membership does not initiate a refund.'
"If you do not notify us of updates to your payment information, we may participate in programs supported by your card provider to try to update your payment information, and you authorize us to continue billing your account with the updated information that we obtain."
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Cancel mid-cycle and you keep access to the end of the term but get zero money back for unused time — no proration, no credit, across the platform.
"We do not provide refunds or credits for any cancellations or partial subscription period."
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Intuit openly admits that under California law it 'shares' your demographics, transaction/purchase history, device identifiers, online activity, and even inferred data with joint-marketing partners and third-party advertising partners to serve you personalized ads. This is opt-out-by-default (via a footer link or Global Privacy Control signal), not opt-in.
"Demographic and preferences information... This data is 'shared' to provide personalized ads through cookies and other tracking technologies." ... "Transactional data, including: Account history, qualification data, purchase history and related records... This data is 'shared' to provide personalized ads through cookies and other tracking technologies... Thirdparty advertising partners."
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Intuit claims outright ownership of any de-identified or aggregated data derived from your financial content and can use it without restriction — including for marketing. The content license you grant separately lasts 'for as long as your Content is protected by intellectual property rights' — effectively indefinite.
"Intuit may collect, derive or generate deidentified and/or aggregated data regarding your usage of or the performance of the Platform, including data derived from your Content. Intuit will own all such data and may use this data without restriction, including, but not limited to, operating, analyzing, improving, or marketing Intuit's products and services, including the Platform."
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Financial product and service offers shown to you inside Intuit's platform can be paid placements — the terms admit money from third parties may influence what you see and where, without any in-product labeling requirement.
"Intuit may be compensated by those third parties, which could impact whether, how and where the services and products are displayed."
How these were found
Documents read 2026-10-01. (1) Intuit Website Terms of Service, Version 02122026 (Section A Platform Terms covering TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, Intuit Enterprise Suite), read directly via browser_open at https://www.intuit.com/legal/terms/en-us/website/ — fully loaded. (2) TurboTax Advantage Offer Terms & Conditions and QuickBooks cancellation-help pages via search-result snippets from intuit.com/quickbooks.intuit.com. (3) Intuit Global Privacy Statement main page body did NOT render via browser_open (JS-loaded; only header/footer text returned) — its current content was not verified beyond search snippets; instead relied on (a) the official Intuit CCPA 'Right to Know' disclosures PDF (via intuit.com's short domain intu.ink digital-asset link, read in full Oct 1 2026; document's own version date not visible in extracted text), and (b) official QuickBooks regional privacy pages (quickbooks.intuit.com/my/privacy/) via search snippets. (4) Retention language quoted from the 2017 Intuit Privacy Statement via a verbatim document mirror (b2cd5e.claudeassets.com) — older version, flagged as such. No clauses, quotes, numbers, URLs, or scores were invented.
These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.