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OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

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Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#71

Post by lxgr »

hypeatei wrote: post #47
binarymax wrote: post #16

I’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…

It’s roughly the difference between giving somebody your phone number and letting them eavesdrop on every single call.

Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#72

Post by gruez »

kridsdale1 wrote: post #51
gruez wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>they can see what political affiliation you have based on your campaign donations You can get a pretty good estimate just by looking at other demographic factors like age, education level, income, and zip code. Moreover, how many people actually donate to campaigns? >predict things like cheating on your wife & the impending divorce, what vices you have and they can also build shadow profiles of all of the people you…

OpenAI is now run by former Meta executives.

Okay, what concrete harms has Meta done with this information? At best you have some creeps using it to stalk their exes, which is bad, but a far cry from the AI takeover scenario implied by OP.

Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#73

Post by bubblegumcrisis »

I'm not sure if Plaid still is- but when they first came out they were pretty evil. They would go into your accounts and download all activity. I spent many hours e-mailing them, trying to get a clear answer of what data they collect- and they never said no to anything.

Whenever I've been forced to use Plaid, I use a throw away "free-checking" bank account that has $1 in it.

I guess birds of a feather flock together.

Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#74

Post by gavinsyancey »

hypeatei wrote: post #47
binarymax wrote: post #16

I’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…

The same info is also on checks, and there's an established story around fraud there -- if I didn't authorize an ACH withdrawal then my bank is legally required to make me whole. If I hand over my username+password to a third party, I'm on my own.

Also, the routing+account numbers just let them deposit/withdraw money, not snoop on all my transactions and harvest my data...

Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#75

Post by lazide »

xandrius wrote: post #63
rfrey wrote: post #54

Man, 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.

Uh, debit cards are the worse as they (technically) don’t allow you to dispute charges like in a credit card. Money comes right out of your account first, and then you have to try to get it back.

Don’t use debit cards online.

Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#76

Post by lxgr »

cbg0 wrote: post #29

> OpenAI did this with your health data in January. Now it wants your financial data too. This is far more valuable, they can see what political affiliation you have based on your campaign donations, predict things like cheating on your wife & the impending divorce, what vices you have and they can also build shadow profiles of all the people you give and receive money from even if they don't use the product.

I’d be willing to bet that ChatGPT will know the average user’s political affiliation and vices about three messages in.

The difference is that banking records are harder to falsify, so there’s that.

Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#77

Post by necubi »

measurablefunc wrote: post #55
webo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hijacking this comment to complain about fintech apps / saas providers requiring Plaid - please stop. For example, Coinbase requires logging in with Plaid to... setup auto-pay for their credit card statements. No way to just provide account/routing numbers the good ole way. There's lots of issues with Plaid but one big one is that banks (e.g big ones like BofA) can lock your account due to suspicious login with Plaid…

They're a YC company so every other YC company is going to use them, that's how YC companies operate.

This isn't at all how YC companies operate (source: I did YC), but also... Plaid is not YC.

Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#78

Post by alexr243 »

measurablefunc wrote: post #55
webo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hijacking this comment to complain about fintech apps / saas providers requiring Plaid - please stop. For example, Coinbase requires logging in with Plaid to... setup auto-pay for their credit card statements. No way to just provide account/routing numbers the good ole way. There's lots of issues with Plaid but one big one is that banks (e.g big ones like BofA) can lock your account due to suspicious login with Plaid…

They're a YC company so every other YC company is going to use them, that's how YC companies operate.

Plaid is not a YC company

Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#79

Post by Marsymars »

drcode wrote: post #24

It seems like every three years or so I need to use a tool with a plaid link feature, I try it, it gives some internal plaid error, then I find some other way of solving the issue.

Plaid is glitchy enough that whenever I hit a workflow that has no alternative, I just call the customer support line and tell them I get an error when trying to link my account via plaid, and they invariably have a manual way to do the thing on their end.

Re: OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid

#80

Post by asah »

binarymax wrote: post #16

I’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.

easy - just keep a small amount (small %) in that account.
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