SEC’s Hester Peirce Backs Privacy Technology, Condemns Surveillance

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce delivered a landmark speech at UC Berkeley, violently criticizing the U.S. financial surveillance system and championing privacy technology. She attacked the Third-Party Doctrine and the 60-year-old Bank Secrecy Act for forcing banks to act as government informants and flooding regulators with millions of largely useless transaction reports. Peirce also denounced the SEC’s CAT system as an “Orwellian” surveillance tool, citing its $518 million cost and unrestricted access to individual trading records. Rejecting the notion that only law can protect privacy, she invoked the 1993 Crypto Anarchist Manifesto and argued that privacy technology—such as zero-knowledge proofs, privacy mixers, smart contracts, public blockchains, and DePIN networks—can safeguard personal data where laws fall short. She called for unfettered development of these tools, even if they might be misused, and urged the government to defend citizens’ right to private value transfers. Peirce’s stance marks a rare regulatory endorsement of privacy technology, signaling a potential shift toward tech-based solutions for financial privacy.