Coinbase Denied Selling Customer Data To US ICE Agency

Coinbase denied selling customer data to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and said on Twitter that its software doesn’t make use of the Coinbase user data so let’s read more today in our latest Coinbase news.

Coinbase denied selling customer data to US federal agencies and also denied that the US ICE is using proprietary historical geo-tracking data to track and identify the people based on the crypto transaction history. The reprots referred to a copy of the August 3, 2021 contract between ICE and Coinbase but the contract was reported on in September 2021 with more details being made via a redacted copy of the contract obtained by the director of the watchdog organization Tech Inquiry via the Freedom of Information Act Request.

1/ We want to make this incredibly clear: Coinbase does not sell proprietary customer data. Our first concern has been and always will be providing the safest and most secure crypto experience to our users.

— Coinbase (@coinbase) June 30, 2022

On page 19 of the contract, the price list and proposal from Coinbase said that its Analytics web browser tool allows users to track the data related to BTC, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, TEther, and other crypto-assets like ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum network. The proposal said that the software can perform transaction demixing that shielded transaction analysis and historical geo-tracking data. This detail prompted the company to respond on Twitter. The company wrote:

“Coinbase does not sell proprietary customer data.”

The company went on to say that the suit of analytics software is meant to be used for compliance AML and identifying terrorist financing:

“Coinbase Tracer sources its information from public sources and does not make use of Coinbase user data. Ever.”

When the contract was reported, ICE was one of the few government agencies to have sought licenses for the anaytics software as per the USA Spending. The US FDA and the Secret Service and Internal Revenue Service have expressed interest in using these tools.

As recently reported, The Coinbase NFT released more features for its small userbase since its public beta launch and it added an NFT Bulk Manage feature as well as a Liked tab with the ability to edit list prices, insights page, and the notification hub. It also added rarity filters, a “following” feed, and the ability for the users to connect up to 10 wallets to a single NFT account among other things. The traders haven’t really materialized despite the platform holding off any Coinbase fee for a limited time.