TideTax

Privacy Policy

Last updated November 10, 2026

This policy covers TideTax at tidetax.com, run by Tide Software Inc. ("we", "us"). The privacy policy on tidesoftwareinc.com covers that site; for TideTax, this one controls. In short: we use your information to do your taxes, we don't sell it, and AI sees your documents or return only if you say yes.

What we collect

  • Your email, to sign you in and reach you.
  • Your email, if you ask us to tell you when a tax season opens. You don't need an account. We use it only to send that one email, then delete it. To be removed sooner, email privacy@tidetax.com.
  • Your documents (W-2s, 1099s, stock plan statements, last year's return, photos) and what we read from them: names, Social Security numbers, addresses, employers, account numbers and amounts.
  • What you tell us: answers, edits, and requests like CPA review.
  • Technical data: a sign-in cookie, and server logs (like IP address, browser and time of request).
  • If you e-file with us: what the IRS requires with an online return — your signature PIN, date of birth and last year's AGI, the bank account for a refund or payment, and your IP address, the date, time and time zone of your device, and a device ID (a one-way code made from a random value stored in your browser). Social Security numbers are used to send the return and never stored.

Visit counts

We count visits ourselves, without cookies, third-party scripts or anything stored in your browser. We keep only daily totals: which page, which site linked to us (its domain only), any campaign tag in the link, and steps like signing in or downloading a return. To count each visitor once a day, we combine your IP address and browser with a random value that changes daily, keep the result in memory only, and discard it at the end of the day; we never store it, your IP address or your browser. These totals aren't tied to you or your account. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, we don't count you.

How we use it

  • To prepare your return: read your documents, calculate, show you the result, and build your forms.
  • To send sign-in codes and messages about your return.
  • To improve TideTax. For example, when we can't read a document, we may look at it to fix how we read that kind of document.
  • To keep TideTax secure and to follow the law.

Federal law (Internal Revenue Code §7216) limits how tax preparers use and disclose tax return information. We use yours only as that law allows, and disclose it only as it allows or with your consent. We don't sell your personal information or share it for advertising.

Reading documents with AI

We read most PDFs on our own servers. Photos, scanned PDFs and forms we can't read yet (up to 10 pages) need an AI model to read them. We send them to our AI provider, Anthropic, PBC, only if you agree, separately for each tax year, by signing a consent. Without it, they aren't sent anywhere: you type in what they show, or wait for us to read the form ourselves. You can withdraw consent at any time on your Account page.

AI assistants you connect

You can connect an AI assistant of your choice, such as one running on your computer. If you do, you sign a consent, and it can see the amounts and answers on your returns, what we read from your documents, and your document names. It can't see your Social Security number, bank details, or the document files and PDFs. It's your assistant: its provider's terms govern what happens to that information, and we don't control them. Access lasts 7 days, and you can end it sooner on your Account page. We email you whenever one connects.

Who else sees it

  • Amazon Web Services hosts TideTax (servers in Oregon, USA) and delivers our emails.
  • Anthropic, PBC reads photos, scans and forms we can't read yet, only with your consent (above).
  • A CPA receives your return and documents if you ask for CPA review.
  • An AI assistant you connect and the company that runs it, only if you sign a consent (below).
  • Authorities, when the law requires it.
  • A buyer or successor, if our company is sold or merged, bound by this policy.

How long we keep it

Until you delete your account. Removing a document takes it off your return, but we keep the file until your account is deleted. You can delete your account and everything in it at any time: choose "Delete account" on the Account page (from the menu under your initial), or email privacy@tidetax.com. Deletion is immediate and permanent. Your data is encrypted with a key unique to your account (see Security), and deleting your account destroys that key, so any copies left in our backups can no longer be read. Backups of the keys themselves expire within 8 days, so after that no copy of your key exists anywhere. One exception: the record of a return you e-filed (the return as sent, your signature, the IRS's reply) is kept, encrypted with its own key, until the end of the year it was filed, as IRS rules for e-file providers require; then it and its key are deleted. We're adding scheduled deletion of old data.

Security

Everything travels over HTTPS. Your documents, what we read from them, and your edits are encrypted on our servers (AES-256) with a key unique to your account; those keys are themselves encrypted with a master key. You sign in with a one-time code sent to your email and then a passkey saved on your device (your face, fingerprint or device PIN) or a code from an authenticator app, never a password; codes expire and guesses are limited. We email you whenever a way to sign in is added or removed, or a recovery code is used. Sign-in cookies can't be read by scripts on the page, and our pages send strict browser security headers. Production servers are reachable only by us. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with applicable law and federal standards. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we'll tell you as the law requires.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete your personal information, or for a copy of it. California residents have these rights under the CCPA, plus the right to opt out of sale or sharing (we do neither), to limit use of sensitive information (we use it only to provide TideTax) and not to be treated differently for using them. Email privacy@tidetax.com from the address you sign in with; an authorized agent can ask for you. We answer within 45 days.

In the past 12 months we collected: identifiers (email, name, address, SSN), financial and tax information, records of what you asked us for, and internet activity (logs, analytics), from you and the documents you give us, for the purposes above.

Children

TideTax isn't for anyone under 18.

Changes

We'll post changes here. If they matter, we'll ask you to accept them the next time you sign in.

Contact

Tide Software Inc., Mountain View, California · privacy@tidetax.com