PRIVACY: Coinbase Promises to Fight the IRS in Court Over Data on All Active US Bitcoin Traders.

“Although Coinbase’s general practice is to cooperate with properly targeted law enforcement inquiries, we are extremely concerned with the indiscriminate breadth of the government’s request. Our customers’ privacy rights are important to us and our legal team is in the process of examining the government’s petition. In its current form, we will oppose the government’s petition in court. We will continue to keep our customers informed on developments in this matter”, Coinbase says.

Coinbase imparted that the Internal Revenue Services sent it a summons asking for information on all users. According to the summons, an IRS agent has recently come across three cases when people used bitcoin to evade taxes. Two of three those cases concerned Coinbase customers. The IRS has also underlined that some Coinbase users are known to have not complied with federal law in the past.

These are only isolated incidents while the government may have gone too far in its intention to gain access to all of Coinbase’s users.

The I.R.S. has not proven it’s trustworthy enough to hold such sweeping powers.