Betterment

FINANCE & FINTECH

LAST UPDATED 19 AUG 2026

OF 100

PARANOIA SCORE

WHAT THE POLICIES SAY

Betterment is a private robo-advisor (Betterment LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser; Betterment Securities, an SEC-registered broker-dealer/FINRA member; Betterment for Business LLC; and Betterment Financial LLC, all under parent Betterment Holdings Inc.) offering automated investing, retirement, and checking accounts. Its GLBA privacy notice answers "Yes" to sharing for its own marketing and joint marketing with other financial companies with no opt-out for either, and its policy separately discloses categories of personal information disclosed to advertising and marketing networks that it says "may be considered 'sales' or 'sharing'" under state privacy laws. The App Store privacy label confirms a Third-Party Advertising purpose tied to email address, device ID, and usage/advertising data. In April 2023 the SEC ordered Betterment LLC to pay a $9 million penalty over misstatements about its automated tax-loss-harvesting service (an investor-protection matter, not a privacy incident). Separately, in January 2026 Betterment disclosed a breach in which an attacker used social engineering to compromise a third-party customer-communications platform and exfiltrate contact and identity data; the ransomware group ShinyHunters claims to have published the stolen data of roughly 1.4 million customers after Betterment refused to pay a ransom.

TRACK RECORD

1 BREACH · 1 ENFORCEMENT ACTION

BREACH LEDGER

[2026-01-09] · BREACH

Have I Been Pwned lists a breach record for Betterment: "Betterment".

Approximately 1,435,174 accounts affected, per HIBP.

Exposed: Dates of birth, Device information, Email addresses, Employers, Geographic locations, Job titles, Names, Phone numbers, Physical addresses.

haveibeenpwned.com ↗

Breach data: Have I Been Pwned (haveibeenpwned.com), CC BY 4.0

ENFORCEMENT

[2023-04-18]

The SEC's April 18, 2023 order found that from 2016 to 2019 Betterment LLC misstated or omitted material facts about its automated tax-loss-harvesting service, and Betterment agreed to a cease-and-desist order, a censure, and a $9 million civil penalty distributed to affected clients, without admitting or denying the SEC's findings.

sec.gov ↗

TIMELINE

NO ENTRIES ON FILE YET.

TOOLS WE RECOMMEND

PLUS

RECEIPTS

9 ON FILE

COLLECTION

The Betterment App Store privacy label (self-reported) lists Financial Info, Location, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data, and Diagnostics as data categories collected and linked to the user's identity.

apps.apple.com ↗

[2026-06-30] · COLLECTION

Betterment's privacy policy states that when a customer opens an account it collects full legal name, email address, permanent address, date of birth, Social Security number, and financial-status information, and that Betterment separately conducts identity verification through Socure, which may require facial images such as ID headshots and selfie photographs.

betterment.com ↗

OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

Betterment's About page identifies Betterment Holdings Inc. as the corporate parent (via its site-wide copyright notice) of Betterment LLC (SEC-registered investment adviser), Betterment Securities (SEC-registered broker-dealer, FINRA/SIPC member), Betterment for Business LLC, and Betterment Financial LLC, and states that no Betterment entity is itself a bank.

betterment.com ↗

[2026-06-30] · SHARING

Betterment's GLBA notice answers 'Yes' to sharing personal information for its own marketing purposes and for joint marketing with other financial companies, with no opt-out available for either category; separately, its state-privacy-law disclosures list identifiers, commercial information, and internet/cookie activity data disclosed to advertising and marketing networks, stating these disclosures 'may be considered "sales" or "sharing"' under state privacy law.

betterment.com ↗

[2023-04-18] · TRACK RECORD

sec.gov ↗

[2026-01-09] · TRACK RECORD

Have I Been Pwned's breach catalog lists the "Betterment" incident (betterment.com), breach date 2026-01-09, affecting approximately 1,435,174 accounts. Data classes exposed per HIBP: Dates of birth, Device information, Email addresses, Employers, Geographic locations, Job titles, Names, Phone numbers, Physical addresses. Source: Have I Been Pwned (haveibeenpwned.com), CC BY 4.0.

haveibeenpwned.com ↗

[2026-02-18] · TRACK RECORD

Security-press reporting (Malwarebytes) states Betterment disclosed a January 2026 breach in which an attacker used social engineering to access a third-party customer-communications platform and exfiltrate contact and identity data, and that the ransomware group ShinyHunters claims to have published the stolen data after Betterment refused to pay a ransom, affecting an estimated 1.4 million customers.

malwarebytes.com ↗

TRACKING TECH

The Betterment App Store privacy label discloses a 'Third-Party Advertising' purpose using Contact Info (email address), Identifiers (User ID, Device ID), and Usage/Advertising Data, all collected and linked to the user's identity.

apps.apple.com ↗

[2026-06-30] · TRACKING TECH

Betterment's privacy policy states it contracts with third-party advertising companies that use cookies and pixels for behavioral advertising on its site, and that users can opt out via Betterment's own privacy controls, the Network Advertising Initiative's opt-out page, and a separate opt-out form for retention.com, a third-party marketing/identity vendor named directly in the policy.

betterment.com ↗

DATA SOURCES

Have I Been Pwned (haveibeenpwned.com)

CC BY 4.0 · HAVEIBEENPWNED.COM ↗

Claims are summarized from these sources and may be edited from the original.

LAST REVIEWED 2026-08-19 · METHODOLOGY v1.7