Plaid (technically a word that means blanket to stay warm) used to imply something good, something safe.

Now technology appropriation of the term is allegedly giving the exact opposite meaning instead:

A Settlement has been proposed in class action litigation against Plaid Inc. (“Plaid”). Approximately 5,000 mobile and web-based applications (“apps”) use Plaid to enable users to connect the app to the users’ bank account(s). This class action alleges Plaid took certain improper actions in connection with this process. The allegations include that Plaid: (1) obtained more financial data than was needed by a user’s app, and (2) obtained log-in credentials (username and password) through its user interface, known as “Plaid Link,” which had the look and feel of the user’s own bank account login screen, when users were actually providing their login credentials directly to Plaid. Plaid denies these allegations and any wrongdoing and maintains that it adequately disclosed and maintained transparency about its practices to consumers.

Ouch. Why would product managers have approved “the look and feel of the user’s own bank account login screen, when users were actually providing their login credentials directly to Plaid”?

Deceptive practices being core to this company’s product, in a way that destroys trust in web transactions, beg the question: is this really how financial “innovation” is supposed to happen?

“If Plaid is actually downloading and saving financial data without permission,and in breach of consumers’ rights, then it would need to reengineer the product and go on an apology tour … and regulators may be punitive.”

My guess is there was a serious lack of safety or ethics in the founding Plaid engineering culture, which allowed generations of its developers to release harmful products into society with abandon. In fact, Plaid denying allegations hints at a continuing lack of security ethos even though it’s been acquired by heavyweight Visa.

On a related note, soon after a poorly engineered “Plaid” car was released it burst into flames and almost killed the owner.