22 KiB
Directory of US-based brokerages
Whitelist
The following brokerages have no significant ethical issues:
| brokerage | ALEC member | Tor-hostile | sensitive info exposed to CloudFlare | supported CISPA | forced drug testing of staff | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenvest | n | n | n | n | n | RIRA; min. investment to avoid fees: $100k; B corp |
| Rich Uncles | n | n | n | n | n | Real estate investing only; verification requires giving them a phone number that you answer (voicemail is not accepted) |
Graylist
These brokerages would normally be blacklisted, but due to the short whitelist they are set aside as a less evil compromise to those blacklisted. They should still be avoided if possible.
| brokerage | ALEC member | Tor-hostile | sensitive info exposed to CloudFlare | supported CISPA | forced drug testing of staff | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E*Trade | n | n | n | 🕵 | n | covers: Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States; funding bonus ($5k=>$50; $10k=>$100; $20k=>$150) |
| Finhabits | n | n | n | n | n | B corp; Hosted on Google Cloud; outsources to Apex; uses Equifax for address verification; sends spam |
| InteractiveBrokers | n | n | n | n | n | min. investment to avoid fees: $100k per account; has an "impact" feature to analyze the portfolio's ESG factors w.r.t. the user's ethical views; covers Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States; website is partially Tor-hostile but the site can be avoided for most operations after sign-up |
| Janus Henderson | n | n | n | n | n | Amazon AWS-hosted; transactional web host (www.secureaccountview.com) is not AWS, but it is Tor-hostile; working offline and receiving gratis paper statements is possible. |
| nvstr | n | n | n | n | n | Amazon AWS-hosted; maintenance fee: $4/month; promos: $15-150 for funding, random bonus awards, referral bonuses |
| Robinhood | n | n | n | n | n | Amazon AWS-hosted; Fined $65M for misleading users; They may have used CloudFlare in the past but apparently that changed; robotic support only -- human support is difficult or impossible to reach; all trades are on a margin and transfers to another broker are marked as such; transfers can take up to a month so any trades like options may expire or lose value since you cannot initiate without knowing a timeline |
| Stash | n | n | n | n | n | Amazon AWS-hosted; no mutual funds; no options; no crypto; maintenance fee: $1/month |
| tastyworks | n | n | n | n | n | Amazon AWS-hosted; TIRA; RIRA; no forex; no crypto; no non-US stocks; open/close fee= $0/0; commission=$5/stock trade (closing trades gratis), $1/option trade; promo: funding (100 shares [$1-6ea, avg:$200-220]), referral=$75 |
| TradeStation | n | n | n | n | n | Amazon AWS-hosted; crypto; min. invest=$500 ($2k for bonus); open/close fee= $0/0; commission=$0.50/option trade; commission=$0-5/stock trade |
| Vanguard | n | n | n | n | 🧪 | |
| Webull | n | n | n | n | n | Amazon AWS-hosted; TIRA; RIRA; crypto; no forex |
Blacklist
These brokerages have severe ethical or trust issues and should be boycotted:
| brokerage | ALEC member | Tor-hostile | sensitive info exposed to CloudFlare | supported CISPA | forced drug testing of staff | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ally | n | 👁 | n | 🕵 | n | whole site is Tor-hostile (403 error) |
| Axos Invest | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | Amazon AWS-hosted; Axos Bank is jailed in CloudFlare and Axos Invest will be soon. Investors who get blocked by that will have to pay $5/month for paper statements. |
| Betterment | n | n | n | n | n | forced h/reCAPTCHA; Imposes hCAPTCHA just to read the landing page. They censor posts in their Reddit sub that complains about this instead of offering support. |
| Charles Schwab | n | 👁 | n | 🕵 | 🧪 | akamai-hosted; majority owner of TD Ameritrade; outsources banking operations to PNC Bank; caught paying $8.8 million to republican dark money group "Americans for Job Security", which has ties to the Koch brothers and neglected to register as a political committee in order to conceal the money trail; donated $1 million to Trump's inaugeration just before Charles Schwab's granddaughter got a whitehouse gig in an apparent pay-to-play scheme. Called out by Lincoln Project for financing Trump; maxed out donations to Trump's legal fund to the tune of $6.7 million as a way to hide contributions that escape the transparency of campaign contributions. |
| Ellevest | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | Amazon AWS-hosted |
| Euro Pacific Capital | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | |
| Fidelity | 👌 | 👁 | n | 🕵 | 🧪 | sponsors Fox News; akamai hosted; takes voiceprints of customers without express consent; Landing page is Tor-friendly but transactional site is Tor-hostile |
| Firstrade | n | 👁 | n | n | n | whole site is Tor-hostile (468 error) |
| Fundrise | n | n | n | n | n | forced h/reCAPTCHA; Amazon AWS-hosted |
| FUTU | n | n | n | n | n | support.fututrade.com is CloudFlared; no web app; mobile app is GPS-iOS-only; desktop is Mac/Windows only |
| Gatsby | n | n | n | n | n | no web app; no desktop app; mobile app is GPS-iOS-only |
| IEX | n | 👁 | n | n | n | an alternative to conventional stock markets; Google-Cloud hosted |
| Lightspeed | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | |
| M1 Finance | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | They censor posts in their Reddit sub that expose the risks of passing sensitive financial data through CloudFlare. |
| Merrill Edge | n | n | n | n | 🧪 | Owned by one of the most evil banks in the world (Bank of America) |
| Prudential | 👌 | n | n | 🕵 | 🧪 | Amazon AWS-hosted |
| Siebert | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | |
| SoFi | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | They censor posts in their Reddit sub that expose the risks of passing sensitive financial data through CloudFlare; also caught in a deceptive advertizing scandal. |
| Sogotrade | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | |
| Stockpile | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | |
| TD Ameritrade (TDA) | n | n | n | n | n | Majority owned by Charles Schwab; Schwab outsources banking operations to PNC bank, which is quite evil; uses MS Github to host s/w; TDA has had several data breaches, one occurance of which leaked email addresses impacting 6.2 million customers; and led to ransom demands and pump 'n' dump stock scams; Scottrade also had a data breach in 2015, 2 years before TDA acquired it |
| TIAA-CREF | n | 👁 | n | n | n | Whole site is Tor-hostile; uses Ally Bank for banking; uses Pershing LLC (a subsidiary of BNY Mellon Corp) for clearing; BNY Mellon was breached in 2008 |
| Tradingblock | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | |
| Wealthfront | n | n | n | n | n | forced h/reCAPTCHA; Registration imposes Google reCAPTCHA; caught making false disclosures and charged for false advertising. |
| Wealthsimple | n | n | 🌩 | n | n | |
| Wellstrade | n | n | n | 🕵 | 🧪 | Owned by Wells Fargo, an evil bank. |
| Zackstrade | n | n | 🌩 | n | n |
Why ALEC members are blacklisted
American Legislative Exchange Council ("ALEC") is a right-wing super PAC and bill mill that puts corporate interests above the interest of human beings. ALEC:
- fights environmental protections
- fights gun control
- fights healthcare
- fights immigration
- fights worker's rights
- fights consumer protections
- fights public education
- fights women's rights
- fights voter rights (supports voter suppression policy)
- finances republicans
- supports the NRA
Countless companies were ALEC members historically, but most of them discontinued membership and renounced it likely to avoid boycott. Companies that continue to renew their ALEC membership are right-wing die-hards unlikely to join team humanity. So they are blacklisted.
The OK hand sign (👌) indicates that the financial institution still today supports the above-mentioned right-wing agenda through ALEC membership.
Why Tor-hostile FIs are blacklisted
Financial institutions that are part of the blockade against innocent Tor-users are automatically blacklisted.
Why access to banks, brokerages, and insurance companies over Tor matters
If Tor were used exclusively for anonymity, it would be useless in the context of consumers accessing and controlling their financial accounts. But that's not the case. Tor prevents your ISP from snooping on where you bank. ISPs collect data on their own customers and exploit it for profit in the US. Under Obama it became illegal for an ISP to sell data collected on their customers without express consent. As if that's not already useless thanks to an abundant supply of consumers who will agree to anything without reading it, Trump reversed Obama's policy in 2017 to render consumers completely powerless. Tor is a free tool to protect from excessive disclosure of where your assets are. Thus when a financial institution blocks Tor, it prevents you from taking basic self-defense measures. This trend undermines the supplier-client relationship whereby we expect the supplier to serve the customer's interest. It's not just anti-privacy, it's anti-consumer.Non-Tor users generally reveal their physical location to their bank or insurance company every time they login. If all banks and insurance companies didn't care where you reside, this wouldn't be a problem. But some financial institutions care more than others and beyond reason. Banks typically collect your IP address and one bank even outright admits in their privacy policy that they collect geolocation data from customers' IP addresses. For nomads/world travelers banks can make their lives hell if their profile doesn't seem to match up with their lifestyle. Some banks will close an account if a customer moves out of their service area. Insurance companies will question whether you're still eligible for the policy you have, as they may want to raise your premiums or cancel your policy if they suspect you're not where your policy is written. If you want to take a job away from home for a year or two, Tor gives you the necessary privacy to do that free of hassle and nannying.
Why non-Tor users should also boycott Tor adversaries
Suppose you never leave home, and you're not bothered if your ISP collects data on where you bank to then sell to data brokers who can then sell it to debt collectors. If you're ethical nonetheless, then you still boycott those who marginalize Tor users. These quotes elaborate on that moral duty:"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." --Desmond Tutu
"Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." --Edward Snowden
To expand on Snowden's philosophy, it's extremely selfish to refuse to defend a right that others need on the basis that you don't personally need it now or in the future. Moreover, indirect benefits should not be overlooked. Human rights activists need civil liberties more than others, but we all need activists to make the world better for everyone. Moral duties to you derive from that.
Tor is becoming less usable because the growing majority non-Tor users are patronizing businesses that marginalize Tor users.
"Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free." --Edward Snowden
To neglect to use Tor is to subject yourself to unnecessary observation. In the context of banking and finance, this in turn reduces your freedom of movement.
The eye (👁) indicates that account access is restricted and exclusive to non-Tor users, who must expose their IP address to the FI and who must expose their FI to their ISP.
Why IB is only graylisted despite Tor-hostility
InteractiveBrokers's trading platform supports proxies over Tor which makes it possible to use Tor for trading. It's also possible to receive statements and tax documents without using the website. So the Tor-blocking website is not an obstical to routine operations. Nonetheless, it's a considerable problem that initial registration and configuration can't be done over Tor.
Why FIs in CloudFlare's walled-garden are blacklisted
Financial institutions that proxy their services through CloudFlare are blacklisted automatically for taking a profoundly stupid risk with consumer's sensitive financial data. CloudFlare holds the SSL keys for every connection and sees all the traffic including username and unhashed password. CloudFlare has proven to be untrustworthy with sensitive information (demonstrated by CloudFlare's doxxing of the identities of child porn whistle blowers). Apart from the unacceptably high security risk of having a CloudFlare MitM, there are countless ethical problems with being an enabler of CloudFlare.
The storm cloud (🌩) indicates that account access is restricted and exclusive per CloudFlare's will and customers who do get access are forced to share sensitive transaction data with CloudFlare, Inc. (a privacy abuser).
Why some FIs that force CAPTCHAs are blacklisted
Banks and brokerages that force customers to solve an hCAPTCHA or a Google reCAPTCHA are blacklisted automatically. Use of these two forms of CAPTCHA have an excessive detrimental impact on privacy and human rights, which is outlined in the CloudFlare rap sheet.
Other forms of CAPTCHA aren't so invasive and aren't cause for blacklisting.
Why FIs that impose Google Playstore (GPS) or Apple are blacklisted
Banks and brokerages that force customers to obtain software from Google Playstore or Apple are blacklisted automatically. Most brokers have web access or a desktop app, in which case the mobile app can be disregarded because customers have a viable means to avoid the privacy abusing walled gardens.
FIs like FUTU and Gatsby are a problem. Gatsby has no means of access apart from the mobile app, and no APK is available on their website or in f-droid.org, so Android users have no choice but to buy mobile phone service, trust Google with their phone number, then also trust Google not to tell data brokers where you bank and invest. FUTU has a desktop app but only for Mac or Windows, so linux users and those who avoid non-free software are stuffed. (Caveat: the FUTU Windows app has not been tested on WINE or ReactOS)
Why CISPA supporters are graylisted
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) was a bill to bypass the 4th amendment to promote a system of unwarranted mass surveillance through information sharing between the government and private sector. Congress blocked the bill, but it was later reincarnated as CISA and it passed. Unlike ALEC lobbying, CISPA was a one-off event far in the past, and over 800 companies supported it. Since it does not necessarily reflect the company's recent stance or influence, supporters are graylisted instead of blacklisted. They should still be avoided in favor of a whitelisted competitor, but they are considerably less evil than those that are blacklisted.
The spook (🕵) indicates that the financial institution lobbied for a police surveillance state in favor of CISPA.
Why FIs that force their staff to take a drug test are graylisted
Drug testing employees is an assault on the privacy and lifestyle of employees and staff outside the workplace. In most cases involving medicinal marijuana states, the drug test also harms the healthcare of employees by intervening in doctors' prescriptions. Normally drug testing would justify blacklisting, but the problem is so widespread nationwide that the whitelist tends to be overly small. Drug testing also does not do significant harm to consumers, so companies that drug test are graylisted.
The test tube (🧪) indicates that the financial institution abuses their staff through forced drug testing.
Why Amazon and Google-hosted FIs are graylisted
Amazon is behind countless evils. It's paramount to boycott Amazon for anyone who cares about human rights, privacy, or the environment. Amazon also has had several data breaches-- Capital One, Juspay, Swiggy, etc., so it's a bad idea to trust custodians who use AWS with the security of your money. Google is also evil. Not the degree of evil that Amazon has achieved, but Google is in the fossil fuel business among other evils. Google is also a central tech giant which (like Amazon) serves as a central point of surveillance and also carries the risks of having a huge number of insiders who can abuse the data. The size of the Amazon and Google datacenters also makes them a likely target for outside hackers due to the high rewards of compromise.
Akamai is not known to have a significant history of wrongdoing on the scale of Amazon or Google. There is cause for concern in terms of security though because it's large enough to serve as a central monitoring point where breaches and compromise is still considerable. Akamai-hosted financial institutions are not graylisted for that reason alone. In the end, you're the judge.
Financial institutions hosted on GAFAM (Google Amazon Facebook Apple Microsoft) are graylisted. The wrongdoing is indirect and in the end taking a security risk doesn't necessarily lead to a breach. Of course it's still ethically favorable to choose a whitelisted financial institution if possible.
Why FIs that outsource to Equifax are graylisted
Equifax is the most reckless of all four credit bureaus with sensitive credit data. A data breach of sensitive consumer records to the tune of ~150 million Americans was leaked as a result of reckless security procedures. The lawsuit yielded a disproportionately tiny settlement by which most Americans were not compensated, even though they never consented to Equifax collecting the data to begin with. Of those who received compensation, most did not receive cash, but rather credit protection service which ultimately feeds more money back into the credit bureaus.
An FI is only as good as its supply chain and ownership
Financial institutions like Merrill Edge, TD Ameritrade, and Wellstrade have ethically controversial ownership. Merrill Edge and Wellstrade are simply owned by extremely evil banks. A large majority of TD Ameritrade is owned by Charles Schwab. Schwab is not directly involved in the highly controversial financing that other large banks are, but Schwab outsources banking to PNC bank, which is quite evil.
It's important for ethical consumption to consider the whole supply chain to the extent of your awareness. When consuming a product or service you're not just feeding the immediate customer-facing business.
We track both the supply chain and ownership. We will not give a subsidiary a higher rating than its parent.