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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

#161

Post by PopeDotNinja »

AlexandrB wrote: post #28
jamestimmins wrote: post #5

Whatever you think about Visa or this merger, this would be a major disappoint to Plaid's team members who thought they were in for a huge financial windfall. If that applies to anyone here, my sympathies and best of luck figuring out what's next for Plaid. Hopefully the morale hit isn't too big on the team.

This comment strikes a nerve with me - perhaps because it's "saying the quiet part loud". I thought the typical goal of hackers and startups was to "change the world" and "make a difference". How does selling to Visa accomplish those things? Isn't expressing sympathy with Plaid's staff for not getting a payout effectively saying "sorry that you might actually have to deliver on the lofty promises this time"? It's als…

It's OK to say "I'm sorry you didn't get your payday" and "your company's exploitation of my data sucks big time" to the same person.

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

#162

Post by f430 »

jjeaff wrote: post #159
f430 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when I used to run a web scraping shop, we had this exact request. I didn't know it was illegal at the time but we ultimately didn't do it because lot of people just want to pay as little as possible for scraping without considering the amount of work that goes behind it.

Web scraping is not illegal per se. Though it may be against the specific terms of service of the site you are scraping.

that was before the 2018 ruling this was back in 2012, I remember Craigslist sued someone for scraping under CFAA.

Thanks to EFF, this scummy tactic used to kill Aaron Swartz is no more.

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

#163

Post by themacguffinman »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #110
jamestimmins wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes it sound like something dirty. Tech workers want to buy homes and go on vacations just like everyone else. That's a good thing. They had an opportunity to make a lot of money making banking services easier for everyone; that's awesome and should be encouraged.

It's dirty when you couple it with the usual startup BS about changing the world, where the startup was created from day one with an exit in sight.

A startup exit doesn't simply erase all its impact. Plaid made many banking services a lot easier & popular, and it demonstrated how valuable that can be. All that doesn't just disappear. An acquisition/merger can also strengthen a startup's founding ambitions with more resources at its disposal.

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

#164

Post by asibehar »

ultimoo wrote: post #146
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

This is so terrible. Is there an easy way for me to write to Plaid to delete all my information or do I have to go into each service and unlink?

If you're in CA, use the CCPA. They claim to have removed my information in response to a CCPA request.

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

#165

Post by gravyboat »

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

Why are you sorry for them? They are making the choice to work at Plaid when they know Plaid is a terrible legal phishing company.

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

#166

Post by granzymes »

rconti wrote: post #62
AlexandrB wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment strikes a nerve with me - perhaps because it's "saying the quiet part loud". I thought the typical goal of hackers and startups was to "change the world" and "make a difference". How does selling to Visa accomplish those things? Isn't expressing sympathy with Plaid's staff for not getting a payout effectively saying "sorry that you might actually have to deliver on the lofty promises this time"? It's als…

I've been through 1.5 IPOs and 1 acquisition. In only one of those cases, did I join the company expecting an imminent-ish liquidity event. One hit me out of nowhere. Regardless of what you're planning on, and even if the dollar amount isn't that great, it's a huge rush, a lot of thinking about the possibilities. It would suck, at the very least, on an emotional level, to have that fall apart.

Out of curiosity, what was the .5 IPO?

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

#167

Post by nabaraz »

iancarroll wrote: post #157
cameldrv wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are selling the data to marketing companies to build a dossier on you, and this could be used for any number of purposes once it is in the hands of data brokers. They're tricking people into handing over the information, and then they're using it for purposes that may harm the victim, so like I said, it's hard to draw a line.

I don't think this is true, and Plaid makes pretty explicit claims that they do not do this, i.e.: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655417 - https://plaid.com/how-we-handle-data/

That was 2018 though when they were barely setting up.

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

#168

Post by shrimp_emoji »

tadfisher wrote: post #145
throwaway9980 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sure I will be called naive, but this is shocking to me. I assumed that Plaid was integrating with the banks and not doing this sort of thing because of the people associated with Plaid. Their seed round included Spark Capital and Google Ventures. Their most recent round included Mary Meeker and Andreessen Horowitz. [1] These investors have reputations to protect. This type of thing would certainly come out in d…

I'm surprised, because Plaid is far from the first mover in the "scraped banking data API" space. Mint (now Intuit) and Yodlee come to mind, and they use essentially the same sign-in flow and come with the same limitations. There are organizations and companies that are trying to do this legitimately, through open standards and real incentives to both FIs and customers to share information in exchanges: - Open Bankin…

>P.S. Can we get real Markdown support already? The fact that the Markdown URL format isn't supported is extremely user-hostile.

Hear hear! Markdown is definitely the new formatting standard, and it's amazing (I even take notes in .md files).

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

#169

Post by kripy »

throwaway9980 wrote: post #112
smnrchrds wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 valu…

I am sure I will be called naive, but this is shocking to me. I assumed that Plaid was integrating with the banks and not doing this sort of thing because of the people associated with Plaid. Their seed round included Spark Capital and Google Ventures. Their most recent round included Mary Meeker and Andreessen Horowitz. [1] These investors have reputations to protect. This type of thing would certainly come out in d…

They're not hiding the fact.

From their website [1]: "When you choose to connect your financial accounts to an app using Plaid, you will be prompted to enter the username and password associated with those accounts. Plaid then links your accounts to the app you want to use so you can share your data."

[1] https://plaid.com/how-it-works-for-consumers/

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

#170

Post by jtbayly »

f430 wrote: post #138
Judgmentality wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I adore the idea of the Plaid founders, and everyone else deemed complicit in a court of law (I think this should likely include investors), going to fuck-you-in-the-ass prison instead of becoming billionaires. Alas, I've lived in Silicon Valley too long to believe that anything moral will ever occur when there's money to be made. It makes me sad that people actually admire this place for anything other than the geog…

Do you think Plaid founders are going to jail?

No. He specifically implied that they would become billionaires instead of going to jail.
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