US SEC Commissioner Peirce Calls for Reducing Personal Data Collection, Promoting Privacy Technologies Like Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Odaily reports that US SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said at the SIFMA Digital Assets Conference that regulators should rethink financial surveillance methods and reduce the collection of personal data, rather than continuously expanding data collection under the KYC and AML frameworks. Peirce believes that storing large amounts of law-abiding users' data may not only increase the risk of leaks and misuse, but also may not necessarily help identify illegal activities.

Peirce advocates the use of zero-knowledge proofs and attribute-based credentials to verify age, accredited investor status, and sanctions list status without disclosing personal information such as name, income, or address, and suggests allowing regulated institutions to rely on identity verification already completed by other compliant institutions to reduce the repeated collection of sensitive data.