Plaid’s Portal Looks to Give Consumers More Control Over Data Shared Via Apps And Fintechs

On Tuesday, Plaid Inc., a bellwether of the open-banking movement, announced the availability of Plaid Portal US, a privacy tool for consumers using Plaid’s technology. The move comes as firms that connect financial-services providers with consumer-account data seek to help account owners manage how their information is distributed and used by payments providers, fintechs, and other service companies.

The new portal, which Plaid announced in a blog post on its Web site, will enable consumers who have connected their financial accounts through Plaid to view which apps and services can access their financial information and control where that data is shared.

Part of the impetus behind the launch of the portal is the large number of consumers in the United States who manage their finances through an app or fintech. A recent survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Plaid showed that nearly 9 of 10 Americans are using a financial app or service to initiate, for example, a peer-to-peer payment, apply for a loan, or manage their spending habits, says Plaid. 

“Through user research, we know that it can be really tough [for consumers] to keep track of who they’re sharing their data with and have simple controls to disconnect if they’re no longer using a specific app or service,” Plaid’s chief technology officer, Jean-Denis Greze, says by email. “For example, if you signed up for a lending app with a one-time use case a few years ago, it might be a helpful reminder that you might want to turn that off.”

Consumers can set up a Plaid Portal account at my.plaid.com. After an account is opened, Plaid can cross-match the consumer with her accounts linked to Plaid. Once the matching process is complete, the consumer can view her financial accounts and the type of data she is sharing with each app or service. Consumers can control which apps have access to financial account data, disconnect their financial accounts from unwarranted or unused apps, and delete their data from Plaid’s platform.

“When consumers can see and control what they are sharing with different apps, they potentially can increase their privacy and reduce the risks of data breaches by making sure there is not too much data in the wild,” Ben Jackson, chief operating officer for the Innovative Payments Association, says by email. Jackson writes the monthly Payments 3.0 column for Digital Transactions magazine.

Jackson cautions that such visibility into where account data is being shared does not provide blanket data protection, as data can move, and be exposed, in many ways. “​Users should be careful of a false sense of security,” he says. “The scope of the portal seems limited primarily to fintechs, and data can be legally required or move through things like credit reporting that might not be shared through apps.” 

Greze adds the Plaid Portal is the first of many products Plaid will be building to “give people increased transparency and control over their information as they continue to bring more aspects of their financial lives online.”