I say this basically every time it comes up but I cannot imagine handing my bank login + password over to Plaid or pretty much any third party ever for pretty much any reason.
Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
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Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
#42I 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
Wow what a jerk. Very, very explicit lie:
> Plaid used consumers’ banking login credentials to gather and distribute detailed financial data without prior consent
> Allegedly, these actions occurred without users knowing about Plaid’s role is a variance of “deceptive tactics.”
And for all this:
> If all 98 million people were to file a claim, each would receive just 60 cents.
> The San-Francisco based platform raised a $425 million funding round in April
The current capitalistic system is broken beyond repair. We need stricter corporate regulation (especially in fintech but more broadly) very urgently.
Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
#43It 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…
Could we all open an Arbitration Case which may be in their TOS (I'll have to look). Edit: California JAMS 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
> Remember that one company
Amazon? https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-faced-75-000-arbitration...
Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
#44I say this basically every time it comes up but I cannot imagine handing my bank login + password over to Plaid or pretty much any third party ever for pretty much any reason.
You're not the only one. I find it staggering that people do this.
Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
#45I’ve used Plaid to login to my bank account. How do I delete all my data from Plaid??
Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
#46[deleted]
Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem isn't banks not having APIs, the problem is not having standard APIs for accessing them. The situation wouldn't be any better if every bank had its own proprietary API, hence why Plaid exists.
The situation would be better than it is now, even with every bank implementing their own proprietary API. As it is now, the APIs may or may not exist - and a lot of times the fall-back for these services is web-scraping, using the same full access credentials the user has to use to log in otherwise. It's a security nightmare and it's fragile. At least if the bank implements some sort of API that means some thought w…
> The situation would be better than it is now, even with every bank implementing their own proprietary API.
Well, I think that would barely change everything on the consumer side. Nobody is going to go through and integrate with the hundreds of credit unions and local banks just for their app - if anything it only encourages a few extra companies enter the battle with Plaid.
Hopefully FedNow fills this void, at least for the U.S. market. https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/about....
Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
#48I 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
Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
#49I 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?
The cofounder was telling the truth (or, at least, nothing in the lawsuit implies that he was not).
The plaintiffs in this case are claiming that when they linked their bank accounts to PayPal/Venmo/etc using Plaid they didn't realize what they were doing, or that it's somehow unfair that Paypal/Venmo/etc got their banking data (despite knowingly inputting their credentials into Paypal/Venmo/etc).
Paypal/Venmo/etc is not a third party in that case. They're the party that the customer was knowingly interacting with.
A third party would be an unknown / unrelated data broker. Ie, the cofounder is claiming that they don't turn around and resell data to anyone other than the app that the customer was deliberately using.
Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing
#5098M customer accounts for $58M so 60c a piece. Sounds like they got a great bargain! Justice is served!