Are there data privacy concerns here ?. As a user im making a decision to share my data with a specific application but now a third party is actually in between us.
Good question. Our tool falls into the category of third party data processors (in GDPR speak). That being said, we take data privacy pretty seriously, so aside from taking security measures and obtaining relevant certifications, we ensure users can revoke access to their data and even delete all their data if needed.
Our goal here is that users can trust their data is being handled correctly because we sit in the middle – much in the way Plaid handles personal financial data for specific applications and "sits in the middle." Although using something like Plaid introduces a potential for privacy issues, they likely can achieve a higher level of security and maintain data privacy better than a single application could.
I used to work for a company which provided a service to state governments which was funded by a federal program. Long story short there are a lot of crazy top-down requirements ranging from integrating with a preferred vendor, which was barely a start-up amid a market of well established (better) alternatives, to the coupe-de-grace which read, "unhindered access to all production data". This service seems particularly useful to companies struggling to cope with government requirements of that nature, particularly GDPR.
Yup, that's definitely a great target for a product like ours. Like you said, especially for a start-up in a market of more well established products, it's hard to juggle product growth with scaling up integrations (and all the work that goes into it: from security to API changes).
Our goal here is that users can trust their data is being handled correctly because we sit in the middle – much in the way Plaid handles personal financial data for specific applications and "sits in the middle." Although using something like Plaid introduces a potential for privacy issues, they likely can achieve a higher level of security and maintain data privacy better than a single application could.