Weird observation, using H&R Tax softwere

[wolf]

History. Prepared 2020 income tax. Downloaded, H&R, software. (purchased from walmart). No issues.

Copied my 2020 tax return to a flash drive, Had to re-boot my computer to "original" condition. (And my 2020 tax return would be deleted).

Purchased, 2021 H&R software, Amazon.

Inserted flash drive, to transfer 2020 income tax, to my computer.
(Reason, after I install 2021 H&R, software, can easily transfer 2020 data to the 2021 return. Saves lot of time entering data.

Weird part: Not able to transfer 2020 return from flash drive to computer.
Strange error message.
Had an idea. Reloaded the 2020 H&R software. Thinking,
maybe, a piece of original software, would allow me to transfer
2020 tax return from flash drive,


Surprise: When I downloaded the 2020 H&R software. MY COMPLETED
FILLED OUT 2020 TAX RETURNS WERE THERE. (AS WELL AS
MY MOM'S AND DAUGHTER).

Nice, cause now I can transfer 2020 return to 2021.

BUT: I had no idea, H&R, kept my tax information, on their servers.

I thought, I just purchased the software, AND all of my personal
income tax information, WAS ON MY HARD DRIVE.

NOT STORED AT H&R BLOCK?

Am i missing something?

 

[GrayHare]

The 2020 software might have found the data on your flash drive. OTOH, if your data is getting uploaded, operate the software only while your hardware is not connected to the web.

 

[AzDreamer]

I had no idea, H&R, kept my tax information, on their servers.

I thought, I just purchased the software, AND all of my personal income tax information, WAS ON MY HARD DRIVE.

I doubt that H&R would keep your personal data on their servers without you being asked to OK that first. I have used H&R for many years and that question has never been asked of me.

It may be that the data from 2020 was never completely erased and reinstalling the software allowed the old hard disc data to be found. Disc data is not erased when you delete it, just file pointers are deleted so that section of your hard drive is available. If you want to truly wipe a disc there are utilities that overwrite the hard disc several times with garbage data.

I wouldn't bet that this is what happened, but it is possible.

 

[OverThinkMuch]

Copied my 2020 tax return to a flash drive, Had to re-boot my computer to "original" condition. (And my 2020 tax return would be deleted).
...
Surprise: When I downloaded the 2020 H&R software. MY COMPLETED
FILLED OUT 2020 TAX RETURNS WERE THERE. (AS WELL AS
MY MOM'S AND DAUGHTER).

H&R Block defaults to saving someplace in the "user" folders on Windows. Is it possible when you did this "re-boot ... to original condition" that certain files were saved? Some computers backup to the cloud, which might include your user files.

I prefer to use encrypted folders on my computer to store tax records. But then I also backup the encrypted folders to the cloud, and on USB sticks.