Ask HN: Is Coinbase a privacy nightmare?
However, then they wanted me to sign in to my bank account using Plaid. When I clicked the button to only provide regular ACH details (routing/ABA and acct number), the website forcibly re-enabled Plaid login as soon as I entered the Bank of America routing number and wouldn't let me switch away. This seems like a particularly evil dark pattern just so they could scrape my bank account.
As I understand it, Plaid uses your bank login to grab your checking account history (all transactions) as well as sharing this information with Coinbase. Why does Coinbase force this requirement, but only for banks that it knows it can gain access to this data for? What if I switch to a local community bank?
It doesn't seem that this level of checking detail is required by law in any country, even for KYC, so why does Coinbase want access to this information that isn't required for KYC compliance?
Is this the privacy nightmare that it appears to be, and are there other exchanges that are more customer friendly?