ConsenSys Won’t Collect User Data When They Only View Balance In MetaMask

After updating the privacy policy, ConsenSys was met with a lot of criticism from the community. The company has voiced its commitment to protecting the privacy of its users in its latest announcement with more specific updates.

Accordingly, ConsenSys says it does not store wallet account address information when MetaMask users make a “read” request through Infura, such as to check their account balance in MetaMask. So there is never a problem with linking a wallet account address with an internet protocol (IP) address.

IP address and wallet information associated with “write” requests, also known as new transactions, is collected. The company added:

“IP addresses and wallet address data relating to a transaction are not stored together or in a way that allows our systems to associate those two pieces of data;

We retain and delete user data such as IP address and wallet address related to our data retention policy. We are working on narrowing retention to 7 days and we will append these retention policies to our privacy policy in an upcoming update; and

We have never and will never sell any user data we collect. We use data strictly in adherence to privacy with the use limitations described in our policy.”

This is an attempt to reassure users that their personal information is being handled securely, after it saw a backlash when it first said it was collecting such data.

Last month, ConsenSys updated its privacy policy, stating that it collects IP addresses and wallet addresses of MetaMask users when they use the infrastructure service Infura, which is also owned by ConsenSys. Infura is the default way for MetaMask users to connect to the Ethereum blockchain.

This immediately sparked privacy concerns. The main one being that a combination of on-chain data, like blockchain addresses and transactions, and off-chain data, like IP addresses, could be able to identify individuals and reduce the amount of privacy available on the network.

In a future version, ConsenSys will make it easy for customers to add a third-party RPC provider, giving consumers additional options. This would make it easier for customers to avoid ConsenSys’ data collecting by using alternative services to Infura.

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