So I recently got an email from gumroad saying that they had been unable to send me my last month”s sales. Gumroad was the service I was using to sell my ebooks and essay and whatever.

Recently, they changed the requirements for the information they demand in order to receive your money. This is why the payment failed.

So I logged in to see what happened and….

It turns out that gumroad hates privacy and vulnerable people. In order to get money you”ve earned from them, you must now give them your name, address, and SSN/SIN. I was fine with all of this except for my SIN.

They claim this is about protecting the service from fraud. Except that one of the easiest ways to defraud someone in canada is if you have their SIN. So… you might not be surprised to find out that this isn”t information I”m willing to give to an american company that doesn”t even have two-factor authentication for their website.

So I emailed support. And they told me that I would never get the money I”d earned from people buying my writing unless I gave them this highly sensitive information about myself.

That”s $50 that I”m never going to see. However, I did come up with a solution that, at least, does not leave the money in Gumroad”s hands. I”ve refunded all the sales I made for December and November. The people who”ve gotten their money back, you are more than welcome to keep what you bought, since this isn”t your fault. If you feel like you still would like to pay, you can send the money directly to me.

I”m writing this all out bc I want other vulnerable people to avoid Gumroad. This is a company that does not care about your safety. If you must give them your SSN/SIN in order to get whatever is owed, do so and I”d recommend deleting your account.

I”m not going to say ‘boycott Gumroad” bc I know a lot of marginalized people who use it to sell art/creative work/etc. Don”t penalize them. However, if you can find an alternative to Gumroad for selling your own stuff? Fuck ‘em.

Fuck. Gumroad.