Bitcoin Forum

Coinbase is sharing information about your account with third parties, which may include information such as: how often you open the app, which devices you open it from, and what the IP address of those devices is. Absolutely unacceptable behavior.

Source: NY times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/business/secret-consumer-score-access.html

It's not surprising that Coinbase would be involved in these sort of services, and they are one of the companies that are all about the bottom line, and maximizing their profits, even at the cost of the customer if it's necessary.

Some of this is unnerving though, I can't believe they would give these "credit check" companies this much information about their customers, but to be honest, I don't think any of them would bother with doing verification themselves, it'll be much too expensive and this is likely why they are working with all of these obscure companies.

Tbh, I get that, but I'm surprised they didn't factor in cost–benefit analysis of the risk of the public becoming vaguely aware of the information being sold.

I mean, this isn't exactly the best industry to try to pull something like that in.

Old news, but If you think Coinbase and Facebook are the only ones doing this, sadly, you’re mistaken. They’re just the only ones in the news. It would not surprise me at all if Google, Amazon, Twitter, or any large corporation does the exact same things.

However, It's not okay that they passed the information to 3rd parties. Won't use it anymore, even though it doesn't matter already. So do they do the same with personal info? personally, i don’t see the big deal as long as that information is in no way directly related to personal identifiable information. sharing information, for example, about how often an app is opened on average across thousands of users for trend analysis info, it's no big deal. as long as no personal information is shared I have no problem.

Will other exchanges follow their leads? @OKEX (http://okex.com)

This is one of the reason why DEX will be the thing in the near future. I'm sure Coinbase is not the only exchange that do this. I think almost all centralized exchange are doing this too. It's kind of sad but if they benefit or profit from doing this, then it will not stop at all. The only way for people to avoid this is to use decentralized exchanges.

I think it's natural for Coinbase to divulge our information to third parties and that is one of the characteristics of Coinbase as before, today we have found many other applications or sites that also track IP addresses or track our handheld devices, even if they make decisions like that, but currently there are no coinbase users who make them lose or have their data misused by that party.

I don't think so - it only seems like Coinbase is one of the companies that leaks user data more than the other ones, most other exchanges don't do this on purchase as Coinbase, and are happy with how much they make off their users, unlike...

I wonder how much companies like Coinbase actually make off this, going by what Facebook does, I'm assuming it's worth a pretty penny per user, just would like to know how much..

I think this has become a habit of a place of exchange that always tries to do that, he tries to make money for his platform too so that it can make the platform good, there are many other places of exchange like that, it's just that it's not so exposed that few people know about it.

More or less, every big giants are doing these and that's why I never supported any KYC formation. Regading coinbase, I think it was long before I have read one news where they wrote Coinbase is leaking personal information of their clients.

this is not new
even before the 'internt bubble' companies were sharing information

did you know your employer shares your information with other companies. such has how many repremands/promotions/payrises you had in work,whether you file grievances with other staff/management. your salary and your education/skills
(if a company has a professional HR department. expect your employment info to be shared)

this is because for a company to check someones cv/resume is accurate involves paying a college/university examination group an admin fee to verify you did actually get the results. this ends up with costing a company multiple fee's for multiple qualifications a potential employment interviewee may have. companies started to centralise that information and charge a lesser fee and made it faster and cheaper for other companies to find out if your information is accurate
(new employer asks old employer how accurate/truthful skills listed are, evolves into a business of its own buying and selling that info)

people thought pre millenium that only 'credit scores' contained details of their creditcard or mortgage details.. but now they find out phone companies, and contracted subscription services sell their information to credit report companies about if someone makes their regular payments, which affects your credit score too.

these days even landlords share info about their tennants

again even before the millenium retail stores and grocery stores that do 'loyalty schemes' would use and sell that info
so all this stuff aint new.. its been going on for the entire 'retail/goods and services' era of like the 1990's onwards
thanks to the internet making it easier to share info, rather than needing paper records and phone calls for references/checks

and so as the article says. even apple/google/facebook sells info about what apps people download and use and how often. we kinda accepted and knew that one as they didnt really hide it :D.. s we should all just accept if you do anything online expect it to be passed around

and yes its not just 'metadata' like a score. they actually keep the detailed stuff that the assumed score is based on

one last thing.
in the UK even the government share info. i know this because when moving to a new location and not even building up much of a 'consumer map' of what i do from my new location. i start getting junk mail directly linked to stuff that was information i could only assume was from the government. simply because on a certain form i mis-spelled my name. and suddenly junk mail was appearing addressed to the mis-spelled name

For those who are fond of doing KYC just because they want to get some few dollars from an ambiguous exchange. Am always cautions of my identity online and not to expose myself. We  must be cautions of these exchanges that are been use by government agencies to get investors data. The last thing I will do to get few dollars is KYC.

This is a big problem affecting many big companies and their shady treatment and management of the customers' data. Soon, there will be many laws that will address this big concern. In Europe, they already have that famous General Data Protection Regulation which started to take effect last year. Hopefully, USA will have its own version too that can essentially limit what companies can keep and what they can do with the data from the people they served or have contact with.

Coinbase is just one of the many who are exposing the data they gathered to other third-party platforms for commercial or non-commercial purposes. I am sure that other cryptocurrency-related platforms are also guilty of this same malady and this has to stop now. Maybe there is a need to sign a petition for Coinbase on this so they get aware that we are watching what they are doing and that we demand better way of data management on their side.

https://www.pngtube.com/myfile/detail/59-592495_shocked-emoji-no-background.png

I thought that only they would provide data to governments only if the transactions were of high monetary value, but watching everything you do is unacceptable. This means that the person does not have any privacy. Can't people go complain in court? because it violates people's fundamental freedoms

Even reputable exchanges and online platforms cannot be trusted now as what Coinbase is doing. Let say, if we are usually submitting KYC to various projects and Coinbase did this, how could we even trust those projects that are just beginning in the market? Well, it is better not to trust these since there are also decentralized projects that operate even without the need of KYC.

For more information about Exchanges that do not require KYC, Refer to this article:
https://beincrypto.com/top-cryptocurrency-exchanges-no-kyc/

Not surprising, most companies do that. It is well known that even some VPNs, which are all about security, might sell your information to advertisers or the government. Especially free ones. Coinbase is primarily a company looking to make a profit, so they will sell whatever they can. Besides, i think that the SEC does require exchanges to provide information about their traders? That way, the authorities know how much you owe in taxes, right? So, with information about your financial situation being at their disposal, why wouldn't they also ask for your metadata and alike? The more info they gather on you, the better for them.

as long as our assets remain safe there is not a big problem, even if our personal domain is captured, is that dangerous?
just keep thinking positive, maybe they want to keep our asset ownership safe from unwanted things.

I am not surprised at all, as long as they won't frame me for something serious then it is no big deal for me. I wondered at first when I tried to play videos on youtube and browse on google chromes that every ad they had is related to what is somehow I am currently interested at such as gadgets and machines that I needed in my business. Somehow I now understand why they know this stuffs, it is because some other sites that I have visited is keeping track of my searches and put in the ads, may in some exchanges they sold your infos and the companies do the advertisements.

That's why it's always important to read the privacy policy of websites before we agree to them for all we know, our information which was supposed to be safe are being given out to who knows what but in the case of Coinbase I am sure that their customers agreed to it willingly and they can't be faulted if they didn't read their Privacy policy.

This is one of the most common online privacy issues that exists nowadays. They twist the words and agreement to get away with it, but all it means is that they'll sell you data to third party companies such as those for advertisements. It mainly is because of the greediness of the company owner/s to more profit, and would disregard proper company ethics in their decisions because they know they'll still get away with it.

What a bad news for those Coinbase wallet users and as well as for all crypto users like us because I can't find good thing on such news :(. Good for me because I'm not using Coinbase wallet however I don't feel that I'm purely safe either because I use FB lmao. How disappointing to know that even a digital wallet hides shady stuff and put ourselves at risk. Where's their conscience? ::).

Who is not sharing information? Even KYC information are gathered through third parties in some cases. Once you release personal information from yourself that means that information is already compromised more or less. It is not in your hands anymore and therefore it is not considered safe. Who will force these companies not to release them to third parties such as the government agencies asking for them? Will you be able to save your information to be submitted to the FBI or CIA for example if they request it?

That's not all. Coinbase is sharing your information with the IRS and probably any government agency that asks for it. I knew it for years. They are one of the most "helpful" exchanges in that matter.

On the the other hand your click stats and IP are not a private thing. When you accept TOS of any service these days you also accept that your data will be stored and processed.

Exchanges have always been the weak point in the crypto universe, whether it's data sharing or being hacked.

That's why we urgently need to build an ecommerce system that accepts crypto directly so you can just pay in bitcoin or doge or whatever and not have to use an exchange to convert your coins into fiat first.

Since Privacy Policies were usually long that no one's read it, even they include this "INFORMATION FROM THIRD PARTY SOURCES
From time to time, we may obtain information about you from third party sources as required or permitted by applicable law, such as public databases, credit bureaus, ID verification partners, resellers and channel partners, joint marketing partners, and social media platforms." - https://www.coinbase.com/legal/privacy but the companies should know that they are not allowed to exposed our information especially that crypto is made to be anonymous even we do KYC it's only meant to comply in their rules ad to the government mandated laws so they should keep it privately and not sell it for their benefits.

Who's safe when you are in the internet?
I don't think one is, unless you are using a lot of protection or even with it they could literally trace everything.

Now, the problem is leaking of information and whose fault is it?
Isn't that our own fault too for giving too much information to them just so we could use the best features of their companies?
That is why we are all here. We want privacy. We want freedom but yet this companies will need to abide by the rules of their government or else they will be shut down.

exactly the point,who should know?and besides whats the motive of this new and why they single our Coinbase ?what about other exchange and other company that involving cryptocurrency?
this isn't fair as surely everyone doing this cheating,thats why sometimes we are being surprised how emails comes to us when we are not expecting those.
but who knows?since they have our data's?and they can just simply sell the info to third party to use as tools to sneak our activities,and  must not be tolerated.

You're right so if you don't want your personal information to be leak then don't share it to these companies and try to find alternative ways, simple as that. With regards on Coinbase privacy policy it is stated that as a user of their platform you are giving them authority to share your personal information with other parties which means you agree with Coinbase terms after you sign-up so there is no point if you argue with them.

Here is the link for Coinbase privacy policy: https://www.coinbase.com/legal/privacy

That's frightening, and I didn't know services like this existed.  I'm also wondering whether this was part of the reason Coinbase closed my account suddenly a few years back.  I don't use Airbnb or anything like them, but who knows what data Coinbase has access to and how they use it.  Yet another reason to say "fuck Coinbase!".

Also, fuck those companies like Sift who deal in consumer's information.  That's one of the most shady practices I've ever read about and they're probably more corrupt than all the credit rating agencies combined.  This is scary stuff.

Before joining and creating coinbase account there are have personal information have accepted by registered coinbase account, they have agree with privacy policy of coinbase, now coinbase will know detail with our data account and can access to our account. But coinbase have been trusted bitcoin site and never take our identity for publishing.

Honestly, after reading this I'm get little bit disappointed in Coinbase. Facebook and Google are different platform from Coinbase, we tend to choose to hide our identity if it comes in financial matter because there are still some places where it is prohibited hence, this will be a problem if they caught being involved in cryptocurrency. In Facebook we are all aware that our info could be share into 3rd parties but for case of Coinbase or any such crypto related accounts, it is pretty far different. Personally, I preferably to hide my identity out of this,as a matter of fact I am not even fond of KYC system.

Obviously they ruin their reputation, user information is a sensitive matter I will not accept for any reason from their act. This incident is either intentional or leakage from their internal, It seems they have violated the agreement to the consumer. they have to explain publicly ASAP for this incident, before disturbing their customers.

how is this news?
Coinbase has been cooperating with the authorities for a year already ( well , it is KNOWN for a year, they could have been doing it way longer )
they are complying with the US laws , so nothing is surprising here
if they are asked to divulge specific information they have by the authorities , they do it and you agree to this when you sign up
I don't know why people are using it - you can get blocked for gambling , your info can be leaked to the third parties and Coinbase is not that good of a service to bear with it

What exactly are you insinuating? can you tell me that in your years of been in crypto that you haven't done any kyc in any platform be it exchange or not? there is nothing wrong if someone do kyc as requirement of the platform he is dealing, but it is wrong when this platform decided to exploit this entrusted personal information without any shame.

Its indeed speculative and you can't easily get rid of it particularly these days that people are using internet to deceive others, well I think you should know that you can't trust anything because you don't know their true intention. They will probably use it on something and that is the reason why people should be aware and cautious when it comes to these kind of things because they will take advantage of you no matter what you do, it depends on you if you are falling onto it. You can't trust someone even your friends with your personal data unless you've known them for years and you know their way of thinking.

It’s just sad that the only thing that matters to them is business and they don’t think about their costumers welfare. They forgot that it was all because of it’s customers that they are able to succeed as a business and that with this they might lose customers and worst it they will lose the business because I think no one would want thier information exposed to any third parties.

All companies conspire together to collect data from the internet.
If you have done it once then your name and documents are already on their files. There is just no one can stay stealth unless you have not tried it before. We're not criminals anyway. But I'm not sure what they are going to do with your information if you start to hid yourself from now on using VPN and TOR and not using CEX. If IRS is going to send you letter next year, you can probably reason the coins were long gone. Hacked by someone or whatever.

I have been following Coinbase for about 2 years and this is not the first time for the exchange. The exchange was already involved in selling personal customers data in the dark web and etc. Be careful with this, Coinbase is dangerous. In my opinion, this is really absolutely unacceptable behavior.

Well said, we never go through the privacy policy which were quite often updated. If we've read the privacy policy and then agreed this could've never been a big issue. Coinbase has a good reputation among the entire list of exchanges. This is why people always expect for a decentralized platform for trading needs. Right now we've got decentralized exchanges, but due to low liquidity it hasn't got used much. Maybe in future more people will start avoiding centralized exchanges who request to complete KYC.

Oh this is actually surprising! I mean, one of the things on why I heavily recommend coinbase is due to their security and reliability. Back when its website was hacked and thousands of coins were scammed, some got reimbursed by the site which is something that is unique to their system.

Upon knowing that they leak my information online, I am convinced that I should replace and switch to my local wallet instead as this may cost and endanger my identity/personal life in the future.

It is not a surprising news if you know that all the application you use in your mobile phone or otherwise will monitor all your activities including your IP address and when it comes to application they have the capability to monitor your contact list and gallery and you need to expect these companies to share your sensitive documentation because you are giving them the authority to do so in the terms of service. It is unacceptable behavior and you cannot do anything about it, the only solution, stop using them  ;).

this happens to many exchanges , but the difference is that Coinbase is cooperating and sends the data when asked
while the rest of the exchanges are either too small to show up on the radars while doing the same
or just get on the news because they are hacked and thus are only guilty of crappy security
Binance investigated a potential KYC data leak and the extortion attempt not so long ago :
https://www.newsweek.com/binance-hack-telegram-kyc-data-extortion-changpeng-zhao-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-1452989
more exchanges lost their data left right and center , this what makes me be very cautious about sending my KYC verification to any of them
now you do not know what is less safe - getting your data leaked to some darkweb dAtabase or have the government know that you are a trader
and doing business selling/buying bitcoins with not so much taxes coming their way

This is an important thing that must be considered, do not carelessly provide our personal data, especially only for a few dollars promised. Unless it provides enough feedback, it can be considered. Well, Coinbase is ranked first in the top 20 cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of web traffic, the results of an ICO Analytics analysis in October. https://i.postimg.cc/L66WKx1W/top20exchangetraffic.jpg
I have no problem with the involvement of third parties, as long as it can have a positive impact, for example, to find out what devices are used, time and place, so that we can find out if someone uses our account from other devices that are not ours. It could be because it was hacked. It is important as a warning.

Since your phone, computer and bank is probably already doing this should anyone be surprised? Even if you keep your coins properly offline, as soon as you spend them or send them it's likely someone somewhere is logging it.

I assume everyone's watching me closely unless they explicitly state otherwise. Even then I'd assume they were trying to dupe me.

As others have said, it's no surprise here that's why it's really hard to stop anonymous in crypto because everyone is selling our info, even to those who we thought at going to protect our info such as crypto platform.

Still boils down as to how much money they can get sharing our info. Everyone has a price now, so at least learn how to protect our online data otherwise everyone is watching our every move.

Hopefully in these sites the privacy of the information is respected, because otherwise, this means a setback in the crypto ecosystem, because people begin to distrust and then there are many criticisms, which moves investors and new ones away potential users.

It's a good thing that I haven't used Coinbase before but as what others are saying, even trusted exchanges these days could leak our personal information. I think that's one of the risks that we're taking here and we got no choice but to find ways to protect it or to put limits in providing too much of our personal information. Everything online is really hackable and could leak these days.

It really shouldn't come as a surprise at all. It's a common practice for the various major corporations to share information about your behavior and your activities. It's to their interest to use the identifying information to identify the various high risk individuals and improve their security. Everything is clearly outlined in their privacy policy and it should be assumed that all your personal information is easily accessible.

Unless you're using an OTC exchange which can guarantee your privacy, you should assume that your personal data is getting shared.

Coinbase is a US company and domiciled in the US, so you should expect that of they really want to stay in business, they have to dance to the tune of the government and one of the way they will do that is to be providing the government every information that they need so as to actually be able to perform some of their financial duty on those people, but there is nothing we can do about that as long as we continue to make use of these centralized exchanges.

Our information will always be leaked to them and which they might decide to sell our data or provide it upon request to the government when they need it. The only way we can avoid this is to actually start using decentralized exchanges which will be very much impossible for the government to influence this and which our information will stay safe on them.

OTC exchange can mean anything. Nowadays there are plenty of regular crypto exchanges offering OTC services to their wealthier clients.

As long as there is a centralized entity between you and the person you are transacting with, there is no such a thing as being guaranteed any level of privacy.

I think you are referring to a decentralized exchange? If so, then that's a decent option, but not the best as there is little serious liquidity available which generally leads to massive spreads. I doubt we'll see that change any time soon as people have been begging for decentralized exchanges for years now and there has not been much progress in the liquidity field at all.