I'm super sorry for the inconvenience and for the limited lead time. Unfortunately, this change wasn’t fully within our control and was required by our card partners.
You tried to sugarcoat this - to pretend like forcing customers to change dozens of cards in December was exciting - and in the process, lost all trust. You could have simply described the problem honestly and transparently.
There needs to be more transparency about how your partners forced you to this course of action and on this timeline, because this is going to seriously hurt your reputation and business. That sounds like an abusive partner, who doesn’t care about you. Or they make for a convenient scapegoat.
We do use the Plaid Link widget (as do most other fintechs in the US). We don't touch credentials or handle the bank login page.
Commentary about the state of the US banking system aside, Plaid is pretty much the industry standard way to do instant bank account verifications today. However, we also have options to link with debit card and account / routing number if you're not comfortable with the Plaid route (totally understandable).
What about Yodlee? I'm under the impression that Yodlee is a bigger and much more established player here. Although Yodlee's API certainly isn't great.
I developed both Yodlee and Plaid integrations for a customer last year. I remember the Yodlee sales rep mentioning that over 75% of their supported institutions are direct API integrations. Now, this is coming from a sales rep so take it with a grain of salt.
PRIVACY.COM | Software Engineer | NEW YORK (NYC) | $90-140K, 0.1 - 1% equity | ONSITE, FULL-TIME
We’ve built a secure way to pay online without giving away your personally identifiable information (PII) or credit card number. We're a small team of 16, moving millions in transaction volume, generating significant revenue, and backed by top-tier investors. In two years since launching, we've saved users over $250 million in unauthorized and unwanted transactions.
A few things we're working on now:
- Improving our fraud modeling and ML classifiers that detect anomalous behavior and prevent fraud
- Updates to our real-time transaction processing engine
- Building out growth hooks, A/B testing and supporting growth and retention efforts
- Unstructured data challenges around improving our browser extension performance
When looking for new team members, we try to focus on the following:
- 2+ years of experience shipping code in a production environment
- Proficiency in at least one language - we use NodeJS / Python / C++ / Java / SQL
- An understanding of the balance between perfection and shipping quickly
- An understanding that code is written as much for humans to read and maintain as it is for machines to interpret
- Proven ownership of the features from start to finish
- Deep understanding of algorithms, systems, and design
Why apply?
- Competitive compensation and meaningful equity
- Medical / dental / vision coverage
- Snacks, stocked fridge, and pantry
- Choose your own Apple equipment
- Commuter Benefits
- Flexible vacation policy; take time when you need it
- Our office is located in a beautiful loft in Chinatown near most trains
- 3% cash back on all purchases with Privacy cards
Hey there! One of the Privacy.com cofounders here.
I hear you on the login concern. It was something we launched with and releasing new bank flows is tricky, so we've been doing so slowly.
That said, we do have alternative flows (including micro-deposits). If you're open to giving us another chance, drop me a note (bo@privacy.com), and I'd be happy to set you up.
Is that fairly recent? I remember when I last tried to sign up I was kind of blind sighted by it just asking for banking information without prior knowledge.
I’ll probably give you guys another shot. Although I’d still put a mention of how to fund your account on the homepage.
Hey there! One of the Privacy.com cofounders here.
I hear you on the login concern. We've been rolling out alternative flows (including micro-deposits). If you're open to giving us another shot, drop me a note bo@privacy.com, and I'd be happy to set you up.
Privacy.com | Senior Software Engineer | FULL-TIME | New York, NY (NYC / Brooklyn) | ONSITE | $120k - $160k (USD), 0.1 - 1% equity
Come help us build and scale Privacy.com. We're building the world's safest and easiest way to pay online. In less than two years since launch, we've saved users over $100,000,000 in unauthorized and unwanted transactions.
About Us
Privacy is a new way to transact without sharing your personally identifiable information or credit card number. Generate a new card number for every purchase with just 1 click. You don’t use the same password everywhere, why use the same card number?
We're a rapidly growing, fintech company backed by tier 1 investors expanding our engineering team to keep pace with our growth. We believe that there is an enormous opportunity to improve the lives of millions of people by building financial tools that are both safe and delightful to use.
As an early team member, you will make a significant impact on both the product and culture. You'll have the chance to work directly with everyone in the company on a multitude of interesting technical challenges across payment processing, banking APIs, fraud detection, scale, and predictive analytics.
Why apply?
- Competitive compensation and equity
- Medical / dental / vision coverage
- Snacks, stocked fridge, and pantry
- Choose your own Apple equipment
- Pet friendly office
- Commuter Benefits
- Flexible vacation policy; take time when you need it
- Our office is located in a beautiful loft in downtown NYC near most trains
Apply via Angel List or drop us a note jobs@privacy.com
If I understand the way the process works, no. The credit card is attached (via privacy.com) to a checking account via ACH. So if you get a refund (or perform a chargeback) on one of your credit cards, then the resulting funds are just deposited into your checking account.
I believe a competitor of theirs has been actively trying to spread distrust of them on HN. I don't remember the details well, but I think they allege that ProtonVPN and ProtonMail aren't independent from each other when they claim they are.
There is a smear campaign going on, but not about precisely this. The smear campaign is that since ProtonVPN is free, it must be doing something nefarious.
ProtonMail and ProtonVPN are legally separate, but they are both part of the Proton family of projects which originated from CERN.
I'm not sure what competitor you're referring to, I don't think they have many of those (tutanota, maybe? Or startmail?) but I assure you I don't work for one of those. There's not another email provider I have significantly more trust in or that I think does everything right while protonmail does everything wrong, there's just a minor sticky feeling that I have using them.
Privacy.com | Software Engineer / Senior Backend Engineer | FULL-TIME | New York, NY (NYC) | ONSITE | $100k - $140k (USD), 0.1 - 1% equity
Come help us build and scale Privacy.com. We're building the world's safest and easiest way to pay online. In less than two years since launch, we've saved users over $100,000,000 in unauthorized and unwanted transactions.
About Us
Privacy is a new way to transact without sharing your personally identifiable information or credit card number. Generate a new card number for every purchase with just 1 click. You don’t use the same password everywhere, why use the same card number?
We're a rapidly growing, fintech company backed by tier 1 investors expanding our engineering team to keep pace with our growth. We believe that there is an enormous opportunity to improve the lives of millions of people by building financial tools that are both safe and delightful to use.
As an early team member, you will make a significant impact on both the product and culture. You'll have the chance to work directly with everyone in the company on a multitude of interesting technical challenges across payment processing, banking APIs, fraud detection, scale, and predictive analytics.
Why apply?
- Competitive compensation and equity
- Medical / dental / vision coverage
- Snacks, stocked fridge, and pantry
- Choose your own Apple equipment
- Pet friendly office
- Commuter Benefits
- Flexible vacation policy; take time when you need it
- Our office is located in a beautiful loft in downtown NYC near most trains
Apply via angel list or drop us a note jobs@privacy.com
I'm super sorry for the inconvenience and for the limited lead time. Unfortunately, this change wasn’t fully within our control and was required by our card partners.