Coinbase Shares User Data to US Government as per Reports

• Director of Tech Inquiry Jack Poulson was able to get a contract.
• There was already a three-year agreement between the ICE and the crypto exchange.

Coinbase, a well-known crypto exchange, is reportedly planning to provide information on its customers to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Director of Tech Inquiry Jack Poulson was able to get a contract stating that the data will contain past geo-tracking and transactional history information.

Coinbase Representative Denies Sharing Customer Data

The data may be used to identify cryptocurrency users and investors. In addition, the United States Department of Homeland Security’s capabilities will be increased due to additional content in the contract. There was already a three-year agreement between the ICE and the crypto exchange. However, a spokesman from Coinbase said that the data given by the analytics tool is not customer information. 

The representative stated,

“All Coinbase Tracer features use data that is fully sourced from online, publicly available data, and do not include any personally-identifiable information for anyone, or any proprietary Coinbase user data.”

In September of last year, the deal was inked. This contract is only one of several between the exchange and US government agencies. In August 2021, Coinbase and ICE signed a $29,000 deal for the supply of licenses for its analytics software to the organization. Additionally, Coinbase licensed its proprietary software, Coinbase Tracer, to the US Secret Service. In April 2021 and May 2020, the Secret Service struck agreements. For less than $50,000, each of these deals was completed.

Coinbase Tracer, which was formerly known as Coinbase Analytics, has been the subject of some controversy. Neutrino, a blockchain analytics business, sold its exchange software segment to Coinbase in 2019. 

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