Binance’s New IEO Project Arkham Faces Backlash for Data Privacy Controversy

Arkham Intelligence’s new Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) project launched on Binance’s Launchpad platform, has found itself embroiled in controversy after collecting a substantial amount of user data, including personal email addresses. The project’s on-chain intelligence trading platform, which aims to “deanonymize the blockchain,” has drawn criticism from the community, sparking concerns about personal privacy trafficking.

Data Privacy Concerns With Arkham Launch

The launch of Arkham Intelligence’s on-chain intelligence exchange received a mixed reception within the crypto world. While some expressed optimism about exposing scammers and democratizing existing tools, others voiced concerns about the potential misuse of the platform.

It has come to light that Arkham Intelligence collects and logs various user data, including wallet addresses, device IDs, and locations. This information is then combined with publicly available data scraped from sources like Twitter.

Adam Cochran highlighted these privacy concerns, noting that Arkham Intelligence treats its users’ data as a commodity. According to Cochran, the project utilizes users’ data, binds it with public information, and offers it for free because, in this scenario, the users themselves become the product.

Likely made the ref links base64 encode so it would be easier to scrape social sites and match social profiles back to Arkham profiles…

– Adam Cochran, July 11, 2023

Response To Accusations

Arkham Intelligence’s CEO, Miguel Morel, acknowledged the concerns surrounding the project’s data collection practices. Morel explained that the referral links contained a Base64 encoded version of the referrer’s email, primarily for tracking user referrals and rewarding participants.

It was a way to attribute sign ups made with a referral link. It was not a way to collect user emails—users already use their emails when they sign up for the platform and get a ref link. We do not use them for anything other than communicating with users and attributing referrals.

– Miguel Morel, July 11, 2023

As for Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange added Arkham Intelligence to its list of projects on Binance Launchpad. Binance is yet to comment on the specific data privacy concerns associated with Arkham Intelligence. Arkham said it will publish an FAQ tomorrow to answer more questions about data privacy and protection.

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