> This data has never been, would never be, and will never be sold/rented/etc. to advertisers.
This is kind of a straw man. These valuable data sets are typically kept by tech companies to keep a competitive edge. For example, not even Google sells or rents user data.
The more relevant question is "is Stripe's valuation significantly predicated on revenue it can extract from the surveillance data it's collecting?"
My guess is that the answer to this is likely yes. Fraud prevention is the current product built on this data. But it would be shocking if the company never put the data set to additional uses.
> Is Stripe's valuation significantly predicated on revenue it can extract from the surveillance data it's collecting?"
No, it's not. This telemetry is useful for helping businesses avoid crippling fraud losses and we don't use or plan to use it for anything else. I don't think investors even know about it.
We're perfectly happy with the business model we currently have!
It's not super fun per se but Stripe is an important infrastructure service and scrutiny comes with the territory. I'm always happy to answer questions.
Well, you are just 1 person though. Can you speak for the (potentially secret, never spoken until it is that time) mind of other founders and the ideas of investors now and forever in the future? That seems rather unlikely.
The problem is also, that the damage done, when/if the data at some point is sold or hacked or whatever, cannot be properly compensated. What is your personal skin in the game, if that happens, besides going for a new, probably high paid job ('cause of impressive CV of being founder of Stripe)?
To be honest, Stripe does not need this data. To provide functionality, they collect all data on card payments, who's paying, who's the seller, seller volume. They can see which cards are used across which services and the like.
Tracking mouse clicks and URLs is auxiliary imo would not move the needle for them right now, unless they move into advertising (not impossible long term, if they go public).
The cofounder says that the data they're collecting is part of the algorithm that has reduced their fraud numbers, and gives concrete data. Either they do need the data, or he's just outright lying, over and over, all across this thread.
This is kind of a straw man. These valuable data sets are typically kept by tech companies to keep a competitive edge. For example, not even Google sells or rents user data.
The more relevant question is "is Stripe's valuation significantly predicated on revenue it can extract from the surveillance data it's collecting?"
My guess is that the answer to this is likely yes. Fraud prevention is the current product built on this data. But it would be shocking if the company never put the data set to additional uses.