ConsenSys, the developer of the popular crypto wallet MetaMask, has reduced the retention of MetaMask user data to 7 days following massive community backlash.
In a November 6 blog post, the company announced its data retention update, reducing the amount of time it will keep user data such as wallet addresses and IP addresses to seven days.
As reported, ConsenSys updated its privacy policy in late November, revealing that it will start collecting certain user-provided data, such as identity information (name, username, gender, date of birth, etc.), profile information (including username and password), contact, financial and transaction information, among others.
ConsenSys also revealed that its other product – Infura – collects users’ IP addresses whenever they send a transaction. As a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) provider, Infura is a critical cog in the Web3 infrastructure because it connects the wallet to smart contracts on a blockchain.
The update was met with criticism from crypto community members who expressed concern about their on-chain privacy. "The update ignited a variety of public and internal conversations around how we could better prioritize the privacy of MetaMask and Infura users," ConsenSys said in the latest announcement.
The company added that after spending the last week digging into some of the issues that were raised as a result of their recent update, they are planning some updates.
"We retain and delete user data such as IP address and wallet address pursuant to our data retention policy," ConsenSys said. "We are working on narrowing retention to 7 days and we will append these retention policies to our privacy policy in an upcoming update."
The company also explained that they only collect wallet
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