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Comment by potatolicious | Hacker News Reader

Actually I think it goes deeper than this. I've looked into Mint's operating model in the Canadian market, for example, and we have a lot of privacy laws that simply do not exist in the USA. These privacy laws make it practically illegal to do what Mint does (i.e. collect private information, login on your behalf, and scrape your bank's site).

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Yodlee and Wesabe are compatible with the canadian market.

I'm pretty sure all Canadian privacy laws can be worked around with a disclaimer. You just need to tell them what you intend to do and get them to sign off on it. IANAL though.

I'm also NAL, but I think privacy laws are the kind of thing that you can't just disclaim away - you may be willing to give up that information, but if it's illegal for them to collect it it's still illegal.

Nothing is illegal to collect, as long as you disclose. Ergo credit bureaus, insurance companies with SIN's etc.

I believe there is a set time when certain things will be frowned upon (That SIN particularly) but we are currently within an incremental period where it isn't right now.

It would need to offer a french version.

A positive is that there are only 5 banks the majority of the population uses in Canada compared to how many in the US?

It would be great if Mint could move into other markets. However, privacy is always going to be an issue with this type of business. However, at what stage do they think it is worth financially to move into a new market? After Series F of funding? or do the investors want a return in a set time frame?

The answer is easy - When the cost to move into the new market is outweighed by the profits that the new market can generate and there is a need to create new profits.

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