Plaid Terms of Use

Plaid is the behind-the-scenes technology that connects your bank account to apps like Venmo, Robinhood, and Coinbase — this legal page governs how Plaid collects and uses your banking credentials, transaction history, and account data. The most important thing to know is that Plaid shares your financial data with third-party app developers, and that data may be retained and used beyond the specific purpose you originally consented to. You can visit Plaid's data portal at my.plaid.com to see which apps have access to your financial data and revoke permissions.

This document is Plaid's legal and privacy policy hub, governing the collection, use, and sharing of consumer financial data through Plaid's API infrastructure, which connects user bank accounts to third-party fintech applications. The most significant obligations include Plaid's right to collect financial account credentials, transaction history, account balances, and identity data on behalf of developer clients, with consumers consenting through Plaid Link. Notable provisions include Plaid's role as a data intermediary that transmits sensitive financial data to third-party developers, creating downstream data exposure risks that consumers may not fully anticipate when granting access. The document engages frameworks including the CCPA/CPRA (California Consumer Privacy Act), GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act), and FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act), as Plaid handles nonpublic personal financial information at scale. Material compliance considerations include Plaid's 2022 $58 million FTC settlement over unauthorized data collection practices, its status as a data broker under certain state laws, and the layered consent architecture that may not meet heightened GDPR or state privacy law standards for granular, purpose-specific consent.