People will pay for OpenAI to have access to their financial data??
I wonder if I could pay someone to run me over with a bus.
Didn't Matt Levine tell a story about Masayoshi Son doing that?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427688
OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
61–70 of 155 posts
Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you ever entered your routing+account number into HR software for direct deposit? Doesn't that qualify as handing a third party essentially the same access as Plaid gets? I think bank accounts are generally more accessible in the modern era, it's just a risk that you take. Of course, you're not obligated to use Plaid but I do find the concerns around this quite strange since you're likely exposing account inform…
Plaid wants you to enter your bank username-password into their form. If it was just routing+account it would be truly no different than other bank connection methods.
Plaid works a lot like PSD2-based services in the EU then, which also typically consist of a form hosted by the service using Times New Roman and the original padlock.gif from Netscape asking for your IBAN and online banking password and then a TAN/2FA number. Obviously there are no technical controls at that point to what the service can do in your account. I tend to avoid anything PSD2 for much the same reasons as Plaid, it's extremely sketchy. Somehow we can have scoped access using OAuth for random webservices but for a credit check it's "please just give us your online banking login despite everyone telling you since 1995 that you're not supposed to hand that to anyone and always double check the URL in the address bar to be yourbank.com... we assure you nl-gwlogin.xs2a.openbankingservices.co.net is an entirely legitimate place to enter your PIN"
Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
#63Man, I remember when the common wisdom was that there would NEVER be enough people willing to put their credit card into a web browser to support a business. I never expected to be nostalgic for those days.
To be fair most frequently people online use debit cards which can be frozen if something goes wrong.
Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
#64What could go wrong
It won't go wrong if you don't wanna use this feature but if you do then its upto you that you''re trusting a for profit company that much that you provide them with your confidential data.
Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
#65I’ve been asked to sign up to plaid by clients three times. Each time I’ve said no. I’m not giving a 3rd party access to my bank account. I don’t understand how people enable this total loss of friction for direct account egress. There needs to be friction.
They do because their banks are largely not offering anything more fine grained, because they don’t have to, and in fact doing so would cannibalize their debit card business.
Requesting full account access for anything other than maybe budgeting software should just not be legal.
Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
#66I’ve been asked to sign up to plaid by clients three times. Each time I’ve said no. I’m not giving a 3rd party access to my bank account. I don’t understand how people enable this total loss of friction for direct account egress. There needs to be friction.
Have you ever entered your routing+account number into HR software for direct deposit? Doesn't that qualify as handing a third party essentially the same access as Plaid gets? I think bank accounts are generally more accessible in the modern era, it's just a risk that you take. Of course, you're not obligated to use Plaid but I do find the concerns around this quite strange since you're likely exposing account inform…
Whenever I have seen the Plaid integration it will also ask permission to your transactions. HR software won't get those when I provide it my account & routing numbers.
Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you ever entered your routing+account number into HR software for direct deposit? Doesn't that qualify as handing a third party essentially the same access as Plaid gets? I think bank accounts are generally more accessible in the modern era, it's just a risk that you take. Of course, you're not obligated to use Plaid but I do find the concerns around this quite strange since you're likely exposing account inform…
With plaid they get access to all of your account numbers. HR just sees a single savings account that I strictly use for direct deposit. They don’t see my actual savings account or my other purpose-specific checking accounts.
Sure, but GP mentioned direct account egress which is why I brought up the typical method for doing that. I figured banks are already selling / reporting the other information (account types, amounts, transactions, etc.)
As an aside, I think each permission has to be granted explicitly in Plaid so it's not just getting "root" access to do simple transactions (unless you grant it)
Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Refinancing a loan I passed on the lowest possible rate I could get, for a slightly higher one, specifically because they used Plaid. I'm not the most privacy-focused individual, not nearly as paranoid as I could be, but Plaid's model is an OBVIOUS step too far.
Depending on the rate difference, I'd be tempted to setup a 'burner' checking account at a separate financial institution and just auto-transfer the loan amount from my primary bank to the burner every month.
That generally wouldn’t pass underwriting. They want the account the money is coming from to be the account with history and money in it already.
Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
#69I’ve been asked to sign up to plaid by clients three times. Each time I’ve said no. I’m not giving a 3rd party access to my bank account. I don’t understand how people enable this total loss of friction for direct account egress. There needs to be friction.
One thousand times this. I am not giving away the keys to my bank accounts.
It’s worse than keys, it’s a persistent read-only view of all account data.
At least there is a process for unauthorized ACH debits. For this blatant breach of privacy, there is nothing.
Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid
#70I’ve been asked to sign up to plaid by clients three times. Each time I’ve said no. I’m not giving a 3rd party access to my bank account. I don’t understand how people enable this total loss of friction for direct account egress. There needs to be friction.
Have you ever entered your routing+account number into HR software for direct deposit? Doesn't that qualify as handing a third party essentially the same access as Plaid gets? I think bank accounts are generally more accessible in the modern era, it's just a risk that you take. Of course, you're not obligated to use Plaid but I do find the concerns around this quite strange since you're likely exposing account inform…
Generally no. Plaid access generally includes whatever name you put on the account, as well as transaction history.