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Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

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Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#81

Post by xvector »

seanieb wrote: post #75

I’ve some friends that works there, so I’m hesitant to say this, because I’m sorry for them, but Plaid is a terrible company. Their main product scrapes financial data from unsuspecting users that simply think they’re making a bank transfer and not signing away the privacy and security of their banking, 401k and trading information. https://twitter.com/seanieb/status/1298871471645761537?s=20

I can't wait until we have smart contracts on a privacy coin that let me invest and grow my wealth anonymously.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#82

Post by smnrchrds »

seanieb wrote: post #75

I’ve some friends that works there, so I’m hesitant to say this, because I’m sorry for them, but Plaid is a terrible company. Their main product scrapes financial data from unsuspecting users that simply think they’re making a bank transfer and not signing away the privacy and security of their banking, 401k and trading information. https://twitter.com/seanieb/status/1298871471645761537?s=20

They are getting sued by TD Bank for this very reason:

> The bank said in the court filings that the interface "dupes" consumers into believing they are entering personal information into TD Bank's trusted platform.

> "In reality, however, consumers are unwittingly giving their login credentials to the defendant, who takes the information, stores it on its servers, and uses it to mine consumers' bank records for valuable data (e.g., transaction histories, loans, etc.), which the defendant monetizes by selling to third parties," TD claimed in the court records.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/td-bank-files-lawsuit-agains...

Also, giving your credentials to any third party, including Plaid, voids the warranty at many financial institutions. If your account gets hacked and your money stolen, you may find out that the zero liability policy no longer applies to you.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#84

Post by hahaxdxd123 »

xvector wrote: post #81
seanieb wrote: post #75

I’ve some friends that works there, so I’m hesitant to say this, because I’m sorry for them, but Plaid is a terrible company. Their main product scrapes financial data from unsuspecting users that simply think they’re making a bank transfer and not signing away the privacy and security of their banking, 401k and trading information. https://twitter.com/seanieb/status/1298871471645761537?s=20

I can't wait until we have smart contracts on a privacy coin that let me invest and grow my wealth anonymously.

Anonymously is unlikely - how would the government get their taxes?

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#85

Post by teagee »

seanieb wrote: post #75

I’ve some friends that works there, so I’m hesitant to say this, because I’m sorry for them, but Plaid is a terrible company. Their main product scrapes financial data from unsuspecting users that simply think they’re making a bank transfer and not signing away the privacy and security of their banking, 401k and trading information. https://twitter.com/seanieb/status/1298871471645761537?s=20

I tried to use their API for a personal project and found starting one month a bunch of transactions were missing from my bank account. It turned out Chase included a promotion on the pdf statement that month which threw off their scraping algo. Really woke me up to their "tech", I changed passwords and avoid them now.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#86

Post by kregasaurusrex »

There's a decent bit of M&A activity going on in finanacial services lately- SoFi recently announced going public, Simple being dissolved after BBVA merging with PNC, Lending Club merging with Radius Bank, and now Plaid's merger termination with Visa. Lots more demand exists for building fintech tools, since significantly more transactions that would normally take place in-person have moved towards being online due to the pandemic. It makes a lot more sense for the whole ecosystem to move towards being data-driven and API-friendly both for consumers to to have less friction between services, and for businesses to deliver a better customer experience. Having the merger fall through is probably better on all sides such that one corporation doesn't retain too much power and act as monopolistic gatekeeper driving up fee prices.

Also, wanted to say thanks to Zach for doing a Fireside Chat with Lambda School students last month! It's great to hear from your perspective about industry knowledge & experience in order to prepare for a career in tech.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#87

Post by desireco42 »

I am surprised Plaid is a business. It is a bunch of scripts of dubious security. How businesses are coming on board with that is worrisome.

On the other hand, if we could have standard API and let people integrate services, totally welcome that. But let's not pretend this is anything like that.

If you know something more, please educate me.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#88

Post by RobRivera »

monkeydust wrote: post #69
RobRivera wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SPAC SPAC SPAC SPAC SPAC

Not sure why that was downvoted, there is a glut of funded SPACs and more on horizon who would love to take Plaid public.

each one with like, 200M in raised capital. maybe SPACs are a trend competing with vc money? which doesnt make sense...bc vc investors could also be bought out for a premium on acquisition as well...

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#89

Post by [deleted] »

seanieb wrote: post #75

I’ve some friends that works there, so I’m hesitant to say this, because I’m sorry for them, but Plaid is a terrible company. Their main product scrapes financial data from unsuspecting users that simply think they’re making a bank transfer and not signing away the privacy and security of their banking, 401k and trading information. https://twitter.com/seanieb/status/1298871471645761537?s=20

[deleted]

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#90

Post by rizpanjwani »

jerry80 wrote: post #65
rizpanjwani wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never used Plaid but didn't they require your banking credentials and also didn't have a very secure mechanism for storing them?

Yes. Plaid can be used to verify banking details (many stock brokers use it for this, for example). Plaid works by asking the user to give their banking username and password to Plaid, and then their two factor authentication token too. Plaid logs into their account behind the scenes to verify ownership. Plaid claims to not store this info, and I assume that they don't, but it still seems like one of the biggest secu…

Yeah in the last decade, I have many times considered building a service that would have a better interface and access to information by fetching it from all my financial institutions, but what's held me back is the lack of APIs and I never even considered collecting user credentials as a viable option because of the potential security nightmare and possible libabilities. I guess it pays to be ignorant of all that and just plow ahead. Once you get billions in VC funding, you can fend off any consequences.
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