Coinbase (Coin) has filed a brief in the United States Supreme Court case involving a request for data on the internal revenue service on hundreds of thousands of its customers in 2017, arguing that the court should “protect the confidentiality interests of Americans in digital information stored by third-party service providers”.
The US tax agency – in an action during the first administration of President Donald Trump – had sought financial files under the position that individuals’ transaction files were to be made available once they have shared their information with a third party. In this case, this party was Coinbase. The exchange fought to reduce demand during judicial battles and was finally forced to provide a much closer data range.
“The court should intervene to clarify that the third party doctrine does not allow the IRS to carry out research of Dragnet,” said Coinbase in his Amicus memory deposited Wednesday in the case which has large implications of confidentiality.
In 2020, one of the customers, James Harper, Bitcoin researcher (BTC), brought legal action against IRS, accusing him of inappropriate overtaking in his request for files. Years later, Harper – a lawyer and colleague and the American Enterprise Institute – has his argument before the High Court.
“User anonymity disappears – and blockchain becomes sensitive to easy surveillance – when the government acquires information that allows it to match a key key or a public portfolio to the identity of a user,” noted Coinbase.
“This invitation from John Doe invaded a sphere in which more than 14,000 Americans had a reasonable expectation of confidentiality against an IRS like mandate for in -depth personal and financial information,” said the company.
Representing the case of the government, the Ministry of Justice had previously argued that “a person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information provided voluntarily to a third party, including bank files which were”.
Read more: how a trial against IRS is trying to extend confidentiality for crypto users
