Coinbase will reportedly provide user data to the US government

According to reports, a well-known American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will provide details of cryptocurrency users to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to the contract obtained by Jack Poulson, director of the non-profit organization Tech Inquiry, the company's analytics program, Coinbase Tracer, will provide the US authority with information that will include geo data and transaction history.

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Coinbase will provide user data to the US government

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is tasked with investigating and prosecuting cross-border financial crimes affecting the security and welfare of the United States and enforcing immigration-related laws.

The data will help identify cryptocurrency users and investors. Additionally, the added materials in the treaty will strengthen the powers of the United States Department of Homeland Security. This is an addition to the previously known three-year agreement between the crypto exchange and the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE).

However, a Coinbase representative denied that the data provided by the analytics tool was client information.

"All Coinbase Tracer features use data that is fully sourced from online, publicly available data and does not contain anyone's personal information or any proprietary data of Coinbase users."

The contract was signed in September last year. Its value was 1.37 million dollars. This contract is just one of several other contracts concluded between the exchange and US government organizations.

In August 2021, a $29,000 contract was signed between Coinbase and ICE to license its analytics software to the organization. Coinbase also sold licenses to its proprietary Coinbase Tracer software to the US Secret Service. The Secret Service trades took place in April 2021 and May 2020. Both of those transactions were for less than $50,000.

Coinbase Tracer, formerly known as Coinbase Analytics, has faced criticism in the past. Coinbase bought the division of the exchange that created the software in 2019 from Neutrino, a blockchain intelligence company. Her team previously worked with a startup that sold spyware to several governments, including Saudi Arabia, which is known for human rights abuses.

Coinbase isn't having its best year, and the popular exchange has had to lay off a large portion of its staff to cut costs. They are one of the many companies that have been severely affected by the current market downturn. The exchange is also facing a lawsuit for listing the fallen UST token (TerraUSD). The exchange allegedly did not conduct adequate due diligence on the characteristics of the TerraUSD stablecoin before introducing it to its market.

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