Quote from: EhVedadoOAnonimato on November 29, 2011, 09:22:21 AM

Hi Crypto X Change,

Your site looks very professional, congratulations.

But I wonder what are your takes on privacy. The "Extensive logging and tracing of all activity" statement on your security page is particularly worrisome, and combined with the "Account freezes on suspicious activity" one it really suggests a MtGox-like behavior of holding people's money hansom in exchange for identification, what I find particularly disgusting.

I mean, I perfectly understand that by operating legally the way you intend to do, you cannot fully respect people's privacy. But you can at least make everything clear from the start, to avoid misunderstandings. For example:

How do you define suspicious activity?
How one unfreezes his account, once it got frozen?
Will you ever ask governmental identification? Which? Under which conditions would you ask them?
Will you keep a record linking outgoing bitcoins to incoming bank transfers (or IDs), thus linking bitcoins with people?
If forced by "stronger powers" to give away your customers' data, can/would you at least make such fact publicly known?

Thanks.

Hi EhVedadoOAnonimato,

That's quite a name you've got there =) Yes your concerns are understandable. Frankly speaking, Crypto X Change intends to be around for a very long time, and as such we must be very careful to fully comply with Australian AML and "Know Your Customer" (KYC) guidelines. We understand there is a range of opinion within the Bitcoin community on issues of proper security, privacy, and disclosure, and that because of this, some individuals may never wish to trade with us because we comply with AML policies.

If we believe there to be suspicious activity in an account, we reserve the right to freeze it while the course of action is determined. Sometimes this is done in the interest of the account holder (if an account may have been compromised), and other times it is in the interest of the rest of our account holders or ourselves if the account holder is acting illegally. There is no free lunch - an exchange which looks the other way with regards to illegal activities is jeopardizing the accounts of its other customers if it draws suspicion from law enforcement.

Thankfully, Bitcoin itself exists within a free and open marketplace, and users are free to choose with whom they associate and do business. Crypto X Change seeks legal business in full AML compliance over the long term, and thus our Privacy Policy and Terms reflect that (and extra points to you for actually reading a site's policies... more people should do that).

Hopefully this addresses your concerns in a reasonable way and demonstrates where we stand on the issue, and thank you for bringing it up for discussion.

Regards,
-Crypto X Change