Plaid - Don't do it.
20 December, 2022
Plaid is a popular financial service that is used to connect to your bank account. Literally, it connects to your bank account.
Example: Coinbase, add a bank account:
Right, "Your data belongs to you".
It asks you for your username and password of your bank. And most users naively enter the username and password of their bank account, allowing Plaid to access and read all your bank transactions and positions. Once you entered your login credentials, it queries all your financial data and store it.
Username and password only belong to one place, and this is your bank login page.
Don't do it.
Yes, exit.
They already sold your data if you used Plaid last year. See the lawsuit for the $58 million settlement:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/fintech-firm-plaid-agrees-58-mln-deal-end-privacy-case-2021-08-06/
Search https://www.reddit.com/ for Plaid to get more insight.
You can request to clear your data using this form:
https://plaid.com/legal/data-protection-request-form/
What you need to do is to manually link your bank account using the routing number and account number, wait 2 business days for the verification test transfer of $0.01 and enter the code in the transaction description (ACH transfer):
Alternatively use the classic wire transfer, but this thing costs about $20 each time you use. It is safe and the best for large sums as it does not have any limitations.