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

justice.gov

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

#221

Post by kelnos »

fintechthrow456 wrote: post #207
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

As someone who's worked in fintech for 10 years, I think this is a bad take. Out of all aggregators (what this is called), Plaid is by far the most open and privacy-forward. First, they're transparent about being a 3rd party that's part of the flow (see https://plaid.com/blog/the-all-new-plaid-link/ ). It's clear it's Plaid, they use neutral colors and not the bank's, etc. They have a portal where you can manage your…

> It's clear it's Plaid, they use neutral colors and not the bank's, etc.

Every time I've been confronted with a Plaid-backed bank login prompt, they use the bank's colors and logo, the word "Plaid" or their logo is either nowhere to be found or is in tiny fine print, and I run away screaming from that service.

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

#222

Post by EricFortney »

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?

Yes.

https://my.plaid.com/help/360043065334-can-i-remove-app-acce...

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

#224

Post by milesskorpen »

coachtrotz wrote: post #203
milesskorpen wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And still the case from what I've heard.

Plaid can very well not use the data in this way, but any company using Plaid's APIs and gaining access to the end-user bank account can do whatever they want with the data. There are no restrictions on potential bad actors who will do this, and no consumer protections.

Sure, and that would be true however a partner collected this data. It’s true whenever you apply for a credit card or a mortgage.

I believe that Plaid doesn’t work with just anyone, and they do attempt to put some limited controls in place to block bad actors - just like any other platform in the world.

All that said, the parent were suggesting that Plaid itself bundled and resold data for marketing purposes which it does not do (though I believe some of its competitors might).

You should hold their feet to the fire for real issues (potential for misuse by companies that use Plaid to gather info, security concerns), not imaginary ones

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

#225

Post by ROARosen »

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…

From the press release: "Plaid is a financial services company that operates the leading financial data aggregation platform in the United States"

I love the way they are literally defined as "the leading financial data aggregation platform in the United States", rather than "the leading financial integrations platform".

Seems like Justice does know their real business. And they don't seem to care.

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

#226

Post by ehnto »

smnrchrds wrote: post #82
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 valu…

Good god that's disgusting behavior. Surely VISA would have seen this as a huge risk?

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

#227

Post by nailer »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #218
nailer wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW their competitor Teller uses the bank's own native APIs. The idea is the bank can't shut off Teller clients without shutting off their own customers. This involves a lot of iOS reverse engineering. So things like Plaid's Capital One integration breaking for months have never happened with Teller - who've been running for something like 5 years now. https://teller.io/

So Teller reverse engineers a bank's internal APIs and uses those to manage your account?

Yes.

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

#228

Post by vishnugupta »

Rapzid wrote: post #201
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'm doing it to get paid. Yeah, I also want to make a great product and all that but.. Also, I'm getting paid.

It reminds me of something my friend would often say. "I'm very passionate about your product and mission. Just that it comes at a price". Also, as the joker said it, if you are good at something don't do it for free.

It's absolutely perfect to be passionate about customers/product/whatever. However, if one is constantly distracted trying to making ends meet the cognitive bandwidth is going to be spent on it rather than chasing the passion.

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

#230

Post by jennyyang »

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

IIRC, they have basically an instance of a scraper for every different bank web site, which to me doesn't seem very scalable. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but when I interviewed a few years ago, it definitely seemed that way.
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