The Tyranny of KYC
"Financial surveillance is far worse than most think. You’re in for a shock if you read this."
History of KYC
KYC’s Birth
KYC was initially created in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks to supposedly stop terrorist financing, but it’s the US government that funded Al-Qaeda BOTH before and after 9/11.
Before 9/11
Osama-bin-laden originally was financed with “Operation Cyclone” in the 1970s to stop soviet influence in Afghanistan. [1] That’s how he got rich enough to do 9/11.
After 9/11
Then AFTER 9/11, the US funded Al-Qaeda in Syria, to overthrow the Syrian president Bashar-al-Assad. [2] Even if we ignore that the Wikileaks cables showed the US purposefully ignited ethnic warfare in Syria, [3] and pretend that this policy of a civil war is legitimate. It’s absolutely ludicrous that the only people they could find dumb enough to die to overthrow Assad, is the 9/11 terrorists who murdered Americans.
Plaid
Widespread Use
Most cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken, use Plaid for ACH deposits. When you use Plaid, not only does Plaid see your entire transaction history, your income, your spending habits, and your life choices and preferences, but on top of all that, the crypto exchange and then third parties get the data as well. To quote the Electronic Freedom Foundation,
“Plaid’s other APIs grant access to geolocation, users’ liabilities, including credit card debt and student loans; their investments, including individual stocks and bonds; and identity information, including name, address, email, and phone number.” [4]
Lawsuit
In fact, Plaid recently LOST a class action lawsuit and agreed to pay 58 MILLION in fines for illegal data sales and manipulative practices. [5a] Thousands of apps use Plaid. Millions of consumers had no idea that Plaid was going into their account and scraping everything they ever did, even though it had nothing to do with the lone purchase they were making. [5b]
Weak Anonymity
Weak-minded propagandists spew dribble that Plaid “anonymizes” the data before its sold, but numerous statistical studies have demonstrated the anonymity to be weak because of the huge breadth and quality of the data. [6] This data is then sold and used by marketers to steer your purchases. [4] Plaid is often not voluntary.
What is the Harm?
Some ask “What is the harm in advertisers knowing everything about you?”
Higher Prices
They can charge higher prices when they know you want or need something.
For example Orbitz steered Mac users to pricier hotels since they overpay for Apple electronics. [7c] This is what Target did by charging customers on its mobile apps more when they were physically near stores and unlikely to seek an alternative. [8]
Manipulation
They can manipulate you to buy things you don’t need
For example McDonalds hired the surveillance company Silverpush to link audio data gotten without consent from its mobile app, to sounds coming from Youtube or Television to display “relevant ads” across platforms. [9] This is literally preying upon addictions to encourage you see McDonalds everywhere, and get diabetes.
Front running
I use this analogy: in financial markets, when a whale goes to buy a huge quantity of an asset, quick algorithmic bots will jump ahead because their small orders get filled immediately without moving the market. This is nicknamed “front running”, because as the whale pays higher and higher and prices to get volume filled, the bots make a quick profit.
When you let Google see the searches of your desires, with the weaponized data sold by Plaid, you’re literally letting them “front-run your thoughts”.
I seek to systematically train users to self-empower themselves with open source technology.
Realizing that I will likely be censored on this mission, in advance I have paid for an entire social network to be developed on top of Session messenger. DM the Session ID: Simple
The sources for this article can be found here
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