A recent news story has indicated that cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has provided Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with a “set of features” aimed at tracking the company’s customers. According to the note, ICE has been given access to an information collection application, called Coinbase Tracer, which provides a variety of forensic data tracking capabilities.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a government agency under the Department of Homeland Security. ICE’s primary goal is to protect the country from cross-border crime and illegal immigration.
Coinbase Tracer is intended to help ICE track malicious and fraudulent transactions on blockchain networks. According to The Intercept, the tool will allow ICE agents to “connect addresses to real-world entities.”
An additional email published by the Freedom of Information Act has shown that ICE was not required to agree to an End User License Agreement with Coinbase. An end user license agreement is used to describe what users can and cannot do with a company’s software products. Supposedly, this means that ICE is free to use the data tracking tool as it wishes with a minimum of restrictions.
When Coinbase was asked about these facts, spokeswoman Natasha LaBranche simply provided a link to the company’s website with text addressing the issue. The Coinbase website link states that: “Coinbase Tracer obtains its information from public sources and does not make use of Coinbase user data.” The Coinbase spokeswoman did not provide any information on the limitations of ICE’s use of Coinbase Tracer.
Reports indicate that some Coinbase users are angry due to “poor” customer support. https://t.co/qBlMod8K7U
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) August 25, 2021
Reports indicate that some Coinbase users are angry due to “poor” customer support.
ICE’s access to Coinbase Tracer stems from a $1.36 million contract it signed with the crypto exchange in September 2021. At the time, the nature of the contract was vague and primarily consisted of Coinbase delivering “application development software as a service” to the agency.
Coinbase has been in the news a lot lately and for various reasons. As Cointelegraph reported, the exchange is looking for an aggressive European expansion to expand its presence in the old continent. In the meantime, Goldman Sachs downgraded Coinbase shares to “sell” on Monday following a correction of more than 80%.
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