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Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing

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Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing

#121

Post by hellbannedguy »

geoduck14 wrote: post #113
wheaties wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have the time to read and research exactly what happened. I see you settled for a large sum. Thus, I don't believe you. We've all been burned by companies that claim one thing and do the exact opposite. It doesn't matter if legally they are stating things accurately. What matters is how we, a mere human, would believe the plain English phrases used to be construed. Hope you have success and I have no ill will…

Just because you settle, doesn't mean you are guilty.

I get it. It's just 58 million. I would fight.

Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing

#122

Post by mjcl »

shostack wrote: post #13
cmer wrote: post #5

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.

What is the bank's incentive to offer this? Answer that and you'll have the answer to your question.

Wells Fargo worked with Plaid to implement a direct API (incl. oauth) because it meant Plaid would no longer hold onto the credentials of millions of WF customers.

Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing

#123

Post by sroussey »

jeandenis wrote: post #82
wheaties wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have the time to read and research exactly what happened. I see you settled for a large sum. Thus, I don't believe you. We've all been burned by companies that claim one thing and do the exact opposite. It doesn't matter if legally they are stating things accurately. What matters is how we, a mere human, would believe the plain English phrases used to be construed. Hope you have success and I have no ill will…

I understand your point (and yes we are all mere humans who like plain language). Your data goes from your bank to the app that you authorized, via Plaid. It is not sold to anybody.

Derived data? All that aggregated stuff? Nothing?

Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing

#125

Post by prepend »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #8
prepend wrote: post #3

Plaids terms are really concerning to me as a user and I’m not willing to give them my bank credentials. My main fear is that they get hacked and my credentials are used to drain my accounts. Plaid waives any liability and my bank doesn’t do much if my credentials are used to do stuff like initiate wire transfers. Venmo is doing this weird thing where for some transactions they are saying they require plaid to get my…

I would recommend considering a bank that supports Zelle payments. Cut out the middleman (PayPal/Venmo). Fed Instant Payments are around the corner (2023), at which point instant payments should be available ubiquitously. https://www.zellepay.com/get-started

My bank supports Zelle and I use it with the few contacts willing to accept Zelle. But most friends don’t, nor do random people who need money. I was trying to buy a book off a street vendor and he took cash app and some app I had never heard of and Venmo, but no Zelle.

Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing

#126

Post by jeandenis »

RileyJames wrote: post #92
jeandenis wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, CTO from Plaid here. We don’t, and have not, sold data. https://plaid.com/legal/#consumer-support As someone who has overseen our consumer privacy team over the past few years building out products like Plaid Link and Plaid Portal, I can attest this is a foremost priority for the company. FWIIW, I don’t agree with the allegations, and you can read our POV on this blog post. https://plaid.com/blog/plaids-commitme…

Based on this, and the blog post, they clearly take issue with the term ‘sold’. Making the users data accessible via api to customers who’ve paid for access to said data does not constitute ‘being sold’, as far as their lawyers are concerned. The fact that 98 million users disagree is unfortunate... The product was sold as infrastructure, and used as data collection, and 98 million users were not aware of that. If yo…

I replied in a few other threads on this. We don't make the user's data accessible via API outside of the app the user connected. Your personal data is not sold or rented or given away or bartered to parties that are not Plaid, your bank, or the connected app.

We talk about all of this in our privacy policy, including ways that data could be used — for example, with data processors/service providers (like AWS which hosts our services) for the purposes of running Plaid’s services or for a user’s connected app to provide their services.

Here's the policy if you want to look: https://plaid.com/legal/#consumers

Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing

#127

Post by lmilcin »

jeandenis wrote: post #52
akarma wrote: post #29

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

Hey, CTO from Plaid here. We don’t, and have not, sold data. https://plaid.com/legal/#consumer-support As someone who has overseen our consumer privacy team over the past few years building out products like Plaid Link and Plaid Portal, I can attest this is a foremost priority for the company. FWIIW, I don’t agree with the allegations, and you can read our POV on this blog post. https://plaid.com/blog/plaids-commitme…

I don't understand something. Please, help me understand:

"According to the lawsuit, filed Thursday in California federal court, the plaintiffs alleged that Plaid has “exploited its position as middleman” to obtain app users’ banking login credentials and use that information to gain access to and sell their transaction histories. Allegedly, these actions occurred without users knowing about Plaid’s role is a variance of “deceptive tactics.”"

So, the lawsuit is for selling the transaction histories and you say you never did it.

Why do you settle for $58M if you never did it rather than go to court so that they present proofs that, according to your explanation, must be false?

I am not convinced.

Or, the simpler explanation you just lie here to us because you can. But you settle to not go to court because you know you can't lie yourself out of loosing.

Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing

#128

Post by neolog »

jeandenis wrote: post #126
RileyJames wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on this, and the blog post, they clearly take issue with the term ‘sold’. Making the users data accessible via api to customers who’ve paid for access to said data does not constitute ‘being sold’, as far as their lawyers are concerned. The fact that 98 million users disagree is unfortunate... The product was sold as infrastructure, and used as data collection, and 98 million users were not aware of that. If yo…

I replied in a few other threads on this. We don't make the user's data accessible via API outside of the app the user connected. Your personal data is not sold or rented or given away or bartered to parties that are not Plaid, your bank, or the connected app. We talk about all of this in our privacy policy, including ways that data could be used — for example, with data processors/service providers (like AWS which h…

I don't think the policy helps much. For example,

> We share your End User Information for a number of business purposes:

> - With the developer of the application you are using and as directed by that developer (such as with another third party if directed by you);

> - With our data processors and other service providers, partners, or contractors in connection with the services they perform for us or developers;

This is so vague that I don't know what it's even supposed to mean. What Plaid lawyers will argue it means when pressed is a further question.

Re: Plaid settled $58M lawsuit over alleged consumer data sharing

#130

Post by swiley »

shostack wrote: post #10
ve55 wrote: post #2

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…

Part of the challenge is there is no great way to easily get my data out of banks and accessible in one place. Business model aside, they do solve a real problem in a space where there are no real incentives for banks to provide their own solution. I'd love to see a subscription-based, privacy-focused option with API access targeting the consumer personal finance crowd. I think Tiller may get some of the way there, b…

Isn't there a standard API used in the US? GNU cash talks about it some in their documentation but I've never tried using it.
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