Did Coinbase Sell User Data To US Authorities?

In the past few weeks, messages have popped up on US social media accounts showing people were there would be a space for them to ‘camp’ in another state if needed. It is code and means that if any woman wants to cross into another state to have an abortion, this is where they will have a place to sleep and recover.

Such is the answer of a rebellious population now that abortion rights have been overturned and the Supreme Court restricted Roe v. Wade, the 50-year-old case that ruled women’s rights to an abortion.

Also highly interesting to see is that Silicon valley giants like Google and Facebook have declared they would no longer track data on women’s periods and menstrual data. All of a sudden people are starting to realize how much your phone knows about you… and in the US this also means how much the authorities know about you as they have the right to request data from companies if they believe a person might be breaking the law (aka crossing state lines to get an abortion). It is truly a ‘brave new world’ out there now. Aldous Huxley’s prophecy was creepingly correct.

Coinbase Hands Over Geo User Data

Another US company which has apparently been handing over user data to the authorities is Coinbase, the biggest US trading platform for all things crypto. Apparently the Brian Armstrong outfit has been selling software which enables the tracking of user data to the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, also known as ICE.

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

Back in August of 2021, only a few months after it’s IPO, Coinbase sold a single analytics software license to ICE for a measly $29,000. ICE found the tracking data on sales of Bitcoin, Ether and other digital currencies so interesting that it followed up with a software purchase of some $1.36 million the next month.

Forbes noted that a Coinbase representative wasn’t able to elaborate on the source of the “historical geo-tracking data.”