Consumers Could Soon See Which Plaid Apps Access Their Account

Source: National Mortgage News

More consumers will soon get to see which companies have access to their financial data rather than needing to memorize which apps they previously granted access to their accounts.

The financial data aggregator Plaid announced on Wednesday it is launching Permissions Manager, which will allow financial institutions that work directly with Plaid to build their own privacy portals so consumers can see or shrink the list of apps that have access to their account information.

Plaid had previously violated consumers' trust by allegedly harvesting and selling detailed financial information without users' consent, according to a class-action lawsuit the company settled last year. Since the episode, the data aggregator has rolled out another product, Plaid Portal, to give consumers greater control over what entities can access their financial data.

Whereas Plaid primarily builds tools for app developers and fintechs to use, the company built Plaid Portal for consumers to use. U.S. consumers can provide their phone number — a common piece of information Plaid uses to link multiple accounts together — to access the portal and see which apps can access their financial information, and which of their bank accounts those apps can access.