GetYourRefund.org is a service created by Code for America Labs, Inc. (“Code for America”, “we”, “us”, “our”) to help low to moderate-income households take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) benefit by breaking down barriers to tax filing and making Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) services more accessible.
This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, share, and protect your personal information. By using our Services, you agree to the terms in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Notice applies regardless of the type of device you use to access our Services.
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice, please contact us at support@getyourrefund.org
Overview
Information we collect
We may collect the following information about you, your dependents, or members of your household:
- Personal identifiers such as name, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses
- Date of birth
- Demographic information, such as age and marital status
- Characteristics of protected classifications, such as gender, race, and ethnicity
- Tax information, such as social security number or individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN)
- State-issued identification, such as driver’s license number
- Financial information, such as employment, income and income sources
- Information from your computer or device, such as IP address, operating system, browser, date and time of visit, and click-stream data (the website or domain you came from, the pages you visit, and the items you click on during your session)
How we collect your information
We collect your information from various sources, such as when you or your household members
- Visit our Site, fill out forms on our Site, or use our Services
- Provide us with documents to use our Services
- Communicate with us (for instance through email, chat, social media, or otherwise)
We may also collect your information from third-parties such as
- Our partners who are assisting you with tax preparation services or any other benefit programs that you apply for
- The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) or other government agencies relating to our Services
Using information we have collected
We use your information for our business purposes and legitimate interests such as
- To help connect you with the free tax preparation services or any other benefit programs that you apply for
- To complete forms required for use of the Services or filing of your taxes
- To provide support to you through the process and communicate with you
- To monitor and understand how the Site and our Services are used
- To improve the quality or scope of the Site or our Services
- To suggest other services or assistance programs that may be useful to you
- For fraud detection, prevention, and security purposes
- To comply with legal requirements and obligations
- For research
Information shared with others
We do not sell your personal information.
We do not share personal information to any third party, except as provided in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose information to contractors, affiliated organizations, and/or unaffiliated third parties to provide the Services to you, to conduct our business, or to help with our business activities. For example, we may share your information with
- VITA providers to help prepare and submit your tax returns
- Third parties to distribute surveys, focus groups, or for other administrative, analytical, and marketing purposes
- Third parties with whom we have a business relationship to send you information about other programs and services
We require our third parties acting on our behalf to keep your personal information secure, and do not allow these third parties to use or share your personal information for any purpose other than providing services on our behalf.
We may share your information with third parties in special situations, such as when required by law, or we believe sharing will help to protect the safety, property, or rights of Code for America, the people we serve, our associates, or other persons.
We may share limited, aggregated, or anonymized personal information with government agencies, such as the IRS, to analyze the use of our Services, free tax preparation service providers, and the Earned Income Tax Credit in order to improve and expand our Services. We will not share any information with the IRS that has not already been disclosed on your tax return.
In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. We may also disclose your personal information as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena or other legal process, when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request.
Your choices regarding your information
We value and respect your privacy and offer you choices over how we collect, use, and share your information.
Postal mail, email, and promotions
To update your preferences or contact information, you may
- contact us at support@getyourrefund.org and request removal from the GetYourRefund promotional emails
- follow the opt-out instructions provided in emails or postal mail
- click on the “unsubscribe” hyperlink contained in our promotional emails from Code for America
Please note that even if you unsubscribe from promotional email offers and updates, we may still contact you for transactional purposes. For example, we may send communications regarding your tax return status, reminders, or to alert you of additional information needed.
GetYourRefund.org respects your control over your information and, upon request, we will confirm whether we hold or are processing information that we have collected from you. You also have the right to amend or update inaccurate or incomplete personal information, request deletion of your personal information, or request that we no longer use it. Under certain circumstances we will not be able to fulfill your request, such as if it interferes with our regulatory obligations, affects legal matters, we cannot verify your identity, or it involves disproportionate cost or effort, but in any event we will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe and provide you an explanation. In order to make such a request of us, please email us at support@getyourrefund.org.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that websites place on the computers and mobile devices of people who visit those websites. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and emails.
- We use cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to remember your preferences, enhance your online experience, and to gather data on how you use our Sites to improve the way we promote our content, programs, and events.
- Your use of our Sites indicates your consent to such use of Cookies.
Most browsers are initially set up to accept HTTP cookies. If you want to restrict or block the cookies that are set by our Site, or any other site, you can do so through your browser setting. The ‘Help’ function in your browser should explain how. Alternatively, you can visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will find general information about cookies and details on how to delete cookies from your machine.
Transactional SMS (Text) Messages
You may unsubscribe to transactional messages by texting STOP to 58750 at any time. After we receive your opt-out request, we will send you a final text message to confirm your opt-out. Please see CFA’s SMS terms, for additional details and opt-out instructions for these services. Data obtained through the short code program will not be shared with any third-parties for their marketing reasons/purposes.
Analytics
We use MixPanel to understand how visitors use our site and to gather aggregate performance metrics. To learn more about MixPanel’s privacy practices and any opt-out choices it offers, click HERE. You can also email support@getYourRefund.org for additional information.
We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our site and to gather aggregate performance metrics. We don’t collect any personally identifiable information using Google Analytics, and we do not combine the information collected through Google Analytics with any personally identifiable information. Google Analytics places a cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user. This cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.
Additional Services and Resources
We may provide additional links to resources we think you’ll find useful. These links may lead you to sites that are not affiliated with us and/or may operate under different privacy practices. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our visitors and users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site as we do not control how other sites collect personal information
How we protect your information
Protecting your personal information is extremely important to us so we take reasonable administrative, technical, and physical precautions to protect your information both online and offline.
Data Retention
We will retain your information as long as necessary to: provide Services to you, operate our business consistent with this Notice, or demonstrate compliance with laws and legal obligations. If you no longer wish to proceed with GetYourRefund and request to remove your information from our Services, we will delete your information within 90 days of when the Services are terminated unless we are required by law to retain your information. In that case, we will only retain your information as long as required by such law.
Children’s privacy
We do not knowingly collect personal information from unemancipated minors under 16 years of age.
Changes
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. Please check this page frequently for updates as your continued use of our Services after any changes in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of the changes.
Effective Date
This version of the policy is effective September 5, 2025.
Questions
If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or complaints with the Site, please contact us by email at support@getyourrefund.org or by mail at:
GetYourRefund
c/o Code for America
2323 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612-2414
We will do our best to resolve the issue. If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request.