If you’re a US resident who uses American Express, Venmo, Robinhood, Coinbase, or other similar financial apps, this matters to you.
It could be possible for you to receive part of a $58 million payout from Plaid following the resolution of a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company collected excessive amounts of user data.
Despite its unfamiliar name, Plaid connects consumers’ bank accounts with many of the world’s largest fintech companies.
More than 5,500 apps are available for its North American users, and the company boasts a client list of over 10 million.
Fast Company reports that Plaid was sued for allegedly obtaining “more financial data than was needed.”
According to Techspot, the suit claimed that Plaid gained access to people’s bank login credentials by providing fake log-in pages that looked like those of their banks.
In August, the company settled for 58 million dollars without admitting any wrongdoing and announced it would change certain business practices.
In the company lawyer’s words, some of the allegations made by the plaintiffs “go back to the earliest days of the company (Plaid)—as such, the underlying claims and challenged conduct do not reflect today’s Plaid.”
58 million dollars may not seem like a lot, but it will be distributed among millions of people, so you shouldn’t start making retirement plans just yet — you’ll probably only receive a few dollars. It’s free money, though.
You may be eligible if you lived in the US and connected a bank account to either of these apps between January 1, 2013, and November 19, 2021.
The deadline for filing a claim is April 28, 2022. You can find settlement FAQs here.