Launch HN: Pelm (YC W22) – Plaid for Utilities

Post by zomglings » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 6:03 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #61

zomglings wrote: post #59

I used to work at a startup which did the same thing for health records. In fact, our frontend plugin was also called "Connect". As an end user, it sounds like you will take my credentials for my utility provider, log into their website with those credentials, extract my data, store it in a normalized form in your DB, and expose it through your REST API. Is this true? If so, while you are logged in, you will also hav…

Do they actually? My provider only lets me edit those details (with a low quality preview of first 4 digits and a CC icon). Interesting that yours makes those visible to you. You literally can't get those out of my provider. The data doesn't make it out.

Post by raisinbran94 » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 6:50 PM UTC

Post by zomglings » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 8:52 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #82

zomglings wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other billing information is always available such as: - Am I behind on my power bills? By how much? - How many credit cards do I have on file and how many are expired? Such information is still sensitive even if it doesn't leak full credit card numbers. Also, anyone who has ever used City of Palo Alto Utilities should probably fear for their credit card information.

I think if your threat model involves that being risky, it's probably best not to use Plaid/Pelm/Arcadia. My threat model and that of any users I can imagine is not in that realm.

Post by renewiltord » Fri, Feb 11, 2022, 3:27 AM UTC

zomglings wrote: post #85

renewiltord wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if your threat model involves that being risky, it's probably best not to use Plaid/Pelm/Arcadia. My threat model and that of any users I can imagine is not in that realm.

I don't use Plaid and as a result I also don't use services like Brex which are impossible to use if you reject Plaid.

Post by levyosah » Fri, Feb 11, 2022, 6:45 PM UTC

raisinbran94 wrote: post #83

Hi Drew and Edmund, I'm a FE developer on Arc (Arcadia’s API Platform), and I was surprised to see how similar Pelm was to some of the projects I've worked on, considering the release of Arc "took you by surprise." Your designs on your website look very close to the design of our connect widget and even has the same copy. For example, this is the Arcadia landing page: https://i.imgur.com/FkPq6S5.png While this is the…