MasterCard breaks ranks in WikiLeaks blockade

http://wikileaks.org/MasterCard-breaks-ranks-in.html

by Lightning • 13 years ago

359 81 13 years ago

wikileaks.org

il• 13 years ago

Note this is likely due to a Supreme Court decision rather than any particular goodwill from MasterCard.

reso• 13 years ago

No, Mastercard International has now stated that they are ending the blockade.

In a letter from VALITOR´s lawyers, VALITOR relates how it sought the opinions of MasterCard International and VISA on the proposed July 1 cut-off. In its response MasterCard made clear to VALITOR that it no longer desires to blockade WikiLeaks. VISA has not responded.

loceng• 13 years ago

It probably was only in the U.S. they were getting in shit from the government.

rocky1138• 13 years ago

This is something VALITOR has said, yes? Have we heard directly from MasterCard? Why the reversal?

pvnick• 13 years ago

Awesome! So happy to see some common sense being sporadically applied these days. Crossing my fingers that Mastercard stands up to the inevitable "cordial" phonecall from old Biden.

Amadou4• 13 years ago

Two steps forward.

One step back: http://torrentfreak.com/mastercard-and-visa-start-banning-vp...

trotsky2• 13 years ago

vpn providers see an enormous amount of fraud.

justanother• 13 years ago

Yes, this. Card issuers do not enjoy doing business in sectors with high chargeback ratios. It probably isn't personal or political.

toomuchtodo• 13 years ago

They should be accepting bitcoins instead.

mrweasel• 13 years ago

I understand that people may have legitimate needs for a VPN, but as someone who has to deal with credit card fraud almost daily, I can understand their reasoning.

Sure it sucks if you need a VPN, but if you're someone trying to catch people trying to defraud you it makes a lot of sense. VISA and MasterCard has rather high demands from businesses when it comes to preventing fraud, so naturally we have high demands to them. Restricting access to VPNs is a simple way of blocking a large number of low ranking fraudsters.

_delirium• 13 years ago

I can see blocking CC transactions that originate from a VPN provider's IP space, as having a high risk of fraud. But this is about blocking payments to the VPN providers, which seems somewhat different. Are they worried that the purchase of VPN services is itself often done via CC fraud? From the statement it sounds like they're more worried about the existence of VPN services at all.

It doesn't personally affect me, though, because just about anything you can do via a VPN you can do by buying a VPS and ssh -D'ing through it. It takes slightly more technical skill, but anyone who can operate PuTTY can do it after reading about 1 page of instructions. And I consider it unlikely that Visa will start blocking payments to Linode or Digital Ocean...

mahyarm• 13 years ago

This is to purchase VPN service. What your saying is equivalent to 7-11 pressuring Visa to stop processing payments with gun shops because guns are used to rob 7-11s.

runarb• 13 years ago

Good we have Bitcoin then. Unfortunately if this trends continue sellers of Bitcoin will soon be facing blocks to.

unreal372• 13 years ago

It's already very difficult to buy Bitcoin with credit cards. I have no doubt that the credit card people are not happy about BTC trading exchanges.

eCa• 13 years ago

I really dislike the combination of the power of Visa/Mastercard and the war against cash.

codyb• 13 years ago

It is true they are powerful but don't hold out on getting a credit card for too long if you don't have one. They're really useful for building your credit score which will get you a better rate when you apply for a loan when you buy a home or car. This can save you tens of thousands of dollars in the long run. If you're worried about tracking and the ability of people to harvest information on your purchases use them solely for bills and no one will know any better. After maintaining a healthy relationship with your card provider ask for a higher limit, and continue to do so. The more credit available to you at any given time compared to the amount you're using affects your credit score as well. Apply for more cards and use each to pay for a bill. They also have amazing customer protection and will help you if you are ever the victim of fraud. Finally, they can actually get you tickets to things which are sold out from what I understand. Don't quote me on that but I heard that if you really need a ticket to see, say, the NBA finals, and all the tickets are sold out, don't go to craigslist (well try that too, and the scalpers outside I suppose but be careful), try calling your credit card company. It might be a bit more than face, but in a bind, they can help you out. I've never done that, I just graduated from college, but I listened to some financial tapes a while back and this is the advice I heard. I cannot exactly recall the author of the tapes or I would recommend them. Very quality and informative.

grumps• 13 years ago

How else am I suppose to get cash to these services?

unreal372• 13 years ago

The VPN in question is owned by Peter Sunde, a co-founder of The Pirate Bay. I think that's a factor in the decision to stop doing business with him...

powertower• 13 years ago

As far as I can tell from the other discussion, that only applies to 1 VPN provider due to their high chargeback rates. You can still purchase VPNs anywhere else.

jdmitch• 13 years ago

If VALITOR processes both Visa and Mastercard aren't they both breaking ranks? Sure, MC has "made clear to VALITOR that it no longer desires to blockade WikiLeaks" but Visa's no response means the same thing. Assuming that the NSA is now going to be tracking everyone that donates to WikiLeaks through VALITOR, at least Visa is not commenting on the situation, rather than sending mixed messages.

tedivm• 13 years ago

Considering the wikileaks donation page is taking Visa now I'd say you're right- https://shop.wikileaks.org/donate

latj• 13 years ago

We need an alternative currency to credit cards that is easy to transfer to other people and anonymous. We need....cash.

EthanHeilman2• 13 years ago

bitcoin, litecoin, freicoin,

stfu4• 13 years ago

But don't you know that these are only used by criminals and terrorists for money laundering...

DamnYuppie• 13 years ago

Cash is good, would be even better if it wasn't regulated by the Fed. We need a currency whose value is not determined behind closed doors. Cash is fine as long as it is backed by something tangible.

venomsnake• 13 years ago

Don't mix store of value and medium of exchange. Cash has always been very good medium of exchange except in few rare cases.

pessimizer• 13 years ago

The value isn't determined behind closed doors; the strategies that they are going to use to push the value of cash to a desired value are determined behind closed doors. This can be done for any (crypto)currency or commodity, because nobody gets to determine what other people are willing to pay for something, you can just try to make that thing more attractive or less attractive.

jlgreco• 13 years ago

If you want to store or transfer your wealth with something backed by something "tangible", you can always trade in commodities.

segmondy• 13 years ago

or a payments gateway that is not rooted in the US.

chris_mahan2• 13 years ago

can gold be shipped? Gold in 1/10 oz coins should be fairly anonymous.

chris_mahan2• 13 years ago

see http://goldsilver.com/international/

Obviously this is a dealer, but I suppose it would be possible.

smellf• 13 years ago

Yes. You can legally ship cash and precious metals up to a certain limit, although I think I read something about the EU trying to ban these kind of shipments soon.

markrages• 13 years ago

Relevant news story: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mai...

DanBC• 13 years ago

Anything easier to transfer to other people than credit cards sees even higher rates of misuse by criminals.

dredmorbius3• 13 years ago

Cash doesn't have chargebacks.

minifigure• 13 years ago

Mastercard is a US company. They will store personal details of all people who donate to wikileaks. Isn't that the kind of info NSA would want to have?

corford• 13 years ago

Well at some point you've got to stand up and put your money where your mouth is.

And if you're sympathetic to the Wikileaks cause, you're probably already on an NSA list anyway...

geekam• 13 years ago

I wonder if it is legal in the United States to visit Wikileaks website.

hedonist2• 13 years ago

"Legal" in the sense that it's constitutionally protected. In theory.

"Illegal" in the sense that doing so no doubt exposes you to tracking and other forms of extrajudicial government abuse.

sneak• 13 years ago

Every visit to every website exposes you to tracking, as we've learned.

driverdan• 13 years ago

Of course it's legal.

hkon• 13 years ago

That was because the NSA was unable to track wikileaks sympathizers through PRISM. They just want the credit records.

dudurocha• 13 years ago

Why not accept bitcoins? I think bitcoins was made exacly for cases like this, where individual freedom and state/private regulations clash.

Does anyone knows why not they accept bitcoins?

EDIT: Oh, good to know they accept bitcoins, thanks!

veridies• 13 years ago

They do, in fact, seem to accept bitcoin: https://shop.wikileaks.org/donate#dbitcoin

antocv2• 13 years ago

A very convenient way for "security services" of the world and especially USA to get a very fine list of sympathisers of wikileaks world over has been opened.

Not that it will stop me!

rbanffy2• 13 years ago

You can always donate through a pre-paid card purchased with cash from a store you never buy anything from, with the transaction done with a throwaway tablet, also purchased with cash, through an open wifi network you never connected to.

antocv2• 13 years ago

Hm I dont know if we have pre-paid cards where I live, Nordics, but that is a good idea.

You could save a few bucks by booting into a live-cd on your usual laptop and using a coffe shops wifi I guess.

lettergram• 13 years ago

I wonder if they are doing it to track who is donating

marcamillion• 13 years ago

You know...I must say, although Assange has an aire about him that rubs me the wrong way sometimes, I must say I admire his conviction.

This man has been holed up in an Ecuadorean embassy in London for the past 2 years, roughly and the USGov't has tried to stifle donations to Wikileaks and he has stuck through all of that.

Now his stick-to-it-ive-ness is starting to pay off.

Congrats to him for a) Having the conviction of his beliefs, and b) To stick with his conviction, despite the great personal costs.

Hats off Assange. Hats off.

alan_cx2• 13 years ago

I do hope people who support freedom, openness, and the rule of law now apply for Mastercard services to show them approval and support. It would be a very good way to demonstrate to MC that they have done the right thing, as well as a clear signal to those who stifle freedom and the rule of law.

_mulder_• 13 years ago

I can think of many ways to show "support for freedom, openness and the rule of law". Signing up with a Multinational Credit Card company is certainly not one of them...

What about just donating to Wikileaks, Pirate party, or spending your money doing things made only possible because of "freedom, openess, and the rule of law". Like filing that FOI request you've always wanted.

MasterCard breaks ranks in WikiLeaks blockade

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