31–40 of 156 posts
It is absolutely crazy that in 2021, banks still don't have proper secure APIs for other software to interface with. Plaid is a major disaster waiting to happen. Are there any banks moving in that direction? I know of exactly zero in Canada.
Chase is the only big US bank I'm aware of which lets you give Oauth tokens with limited permissions to third parties.
If it's the former -- I certainly think services need to clearly state what/why/how they are using the data, but it's on the services (like Venmo) and not Plaid.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The UK and EU have both adopted effectively what you describe under PSD2 - the UK banks in particular were forced by their competition and markets regulator (CMA) to adopt open interoperable APIs. The end result, now it's available, is that you have 2 levels of API access. One is for access to account information (I tend to think of this as read-only access), and the other is to allow for "payment initiation" (think…
This is the template for US financial regulators and legislators to implement. Plaid is filling a regulatory vacuum.
The result is middle apps that are forced to use sketchy anti-patterns like screen scraping and asking for user/pass instead of each bank issuing a per-app token. The banks are just fine with this because anything that explodes will be the middle app's fault and they want to preserve their otherwise moatless situation. Consumers can't really tell banks apart so they have to force retention.
I think companies should still provide a way to link accounts via small deposits. It takes a few days, but at least you don't have to share your credentials. (This applies to US accounts, maybe there are better solutions elsewhere.) If you use Plaid, I think it should only be if there's no other option and you change your credentials after. I've always thought giving away your credentials to a screen scraping company…
I actually mentioned in a thread about Plaid in 2018 that they sold transaction history to third parties, and the cofounder came onto HN to explicitly deny that [1]. I actually felt convinced they didn't afterwards, as I couldn't imagine such a direct and clear refutation if it were true. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655417
I actually mentioned in a thread about Plaid in 2018 that they sold transaction history to third parties, and the cofounder came onto HN to explicitly deny that [1]. I actually felt convinced they didn't afterwards, as I couldn't imagine such a direct and clear refutation if it were true. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655417
I actually mentioned in a thread about Plaid in 2018 that they sold transaction history to third parties, and the cofounder came onto HN to explicitly deny that [1]. I actually felt convinced they didn't afterwards, as I couldn't imagine such a direct and clear refutation if it were true. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655417
So the cofounder was not telling the truth then?
I actually mentioned in a thread about Plaid in 2018 that they sold transaction history to third parties, and the cofounder came onto HN to explicitly deny that [1]. I actually felt convinced they didn't afterwards, as I couldn't imagine such a direct and clear refutation if it were true. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655417
But, we're not in Japan. So i doubt he will.
It is particularly sad how common scenarios this are for users, especially in the US. I have known how terrible applications like Plaid (and alternatives) were, but at various points have been required to use them to do something like pay my rent (this is also a very common theme in my life: I strongly dislike a certain company or app, but find myself required to use them regardless, even knowing that my usage and in…
Remember that one company that got "crushed" with bills cause a bunch of consumers use the Arb-Clause as intended? Supposed to block law-suits