Hi, I'm new here and new to Bitcoin world! I was wondering how anonymous and private are online wallets, like blockchain, coinbase etc.
I'm specially interested in BlockChain because they seem to have a good amount of security. I read their privacy policy and their was this..
What we collect
We may collect the following information:
Contact information including email address, skype or google talk username
iPhone or mobile device identifier
ip address
Yubikey or other two factor authentication token
and this ..
What we do with the information we gather
We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:
Payment Notifications
Internal record keeping.
We may use the information to improve our products and services.
We may periodically send promotional emails about new updates which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
and also this ..
Controlling your personal information
We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.
Piecing all this together, it means that they can associate a wallet with some personally identified information like email which is* shared with gov agencies. And they don't allow closing accounts, which makes it more suspicious. I know I can download the client and use it, instead of them but would like to learn.
What do you guys think about it? What is your opinion about anonymity of blockchain and other online wallets in general?
*the policy says may but with the current prism scandal, I don't believe that.