(Updated) Here's What Your MetaMask Crypto Wallet Knows About You

MetaMask is the most popular on-chain wallet in the Web3 segment; typically it is called the alternative of choice to centralized cryptocurrency services. That is why the recent privacy policy update of ConsenSys, a parent company of MetaMask, makes the industry concerned.

MetaMask wallet might share your IP with its owners

Anonymous cryptocurrency researcher Crypto Snooper of Crawlie Alpha project noticed the major update of ConsenSys's privacy policy requirements. ConsenSys is the development studio behind MetaMask and other Ethereum-centric products.

🚨 MetaMask Tracking IP Address 🚨

Consensys, the company that owns MetaMask, just updated its Privacy Policy to state that they are collecting your IP ADDRESS and your ETH ADDRESS when you send a transaction.

Source: https://t.co/yV4aQ6XZzD

Your options 🧵 ↓

1/4 pic.twitter.com/smfF5VgGk3

— Crypto Snooper 🔎 (@CryptoSnooper_) November 24, 2022

Per the new version of the document, Infura, a blockchain infrastructure provider for ConsenSys soultion, will collect IP addresses and Ethereum (ETH) wallet addresses of the majority of MetaMask users.

Namely, all MetaMask customers who use Infura as a default remote procedure call (RPC) provider will have their data tracked by ConsenSys' Infura.

This update caused much criticism from cryptocurrency enthusiasts of various segments the of Ethereum and EVM ecosystems as on-chain noncustodial wallets are usually promoted as a way to maximize user privacy and avoid data harvesting by corporations and services.

Here's how you can avoid being tracked

The analyst proposes solutions to avoid sharing your IP-address and Ethereum (ETH) wallet data with Infura. First, MetaMask allows users to change their RPC provider, i.e., the service that facilitates the connection between the blockchain and wallet.

The user can receive an API endpoint by a third-party provider and choose it as "Custom RPC" for Ethereum (ETH) or other EVM-compatible network mainnet and testnet.

Also, users can migrate to other noncustodial wallets that do not track IP addresses or other data.

Related

Tue, 12/28/2021 - 11:02

Scam Alert: No, Metamask Didn't Issue Token

Vladislav Sopov

As covered by U.Today previously, scammers periodically launch campaigns on Twitter to promote fake airdrops of nonexistant MetaMask governance tokens.

Follow up: ConsenSys came up with a statement regarding its recent privacy policy amendment and its media coverage. See details in U.Today's article.