Comment on Do any ATMs in Belgium support balance inquiries?
jeffw@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Your banks don’t have websites and apps in Belgium?
Comment on Do any ATMs in Belgium support balance inquiries?
jeffw@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Your banks don’t have websites and apps in Belgium?
ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io 11 months ago
Banks are gradually removing features from their websites in a progression toward complete elimination of the website (some banks have already taken that step & impose an app). 1-factor authentication is illegal in Belgium. So for web access banks typically hand out devices for 2FA. Some banks avoid that cost by imposing a smartphone app in lieu of a card reader or RSA token (BYO smartphone).
There are many problems with bank apps in Belgium:
2.1. You must subscribe to mobile phone service in order to satisfy Google’s unreasonable demand for a mobile phone number
2.2. You must trust Google with your mobile phone number
2.3. When Google records your place of banking, you must trust Google not to share that info (with debt collectors, for example)
Thavron@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
I say this with the best intentions, and you have every right to take all these things into consideration, but you’re sounding very paranoid. I think your best option would be to immediately withdraw any funds you receive and keep a completely paper administration.
ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io 11 months ago
I’m an ethical consumer. That means I will not patronize unethical companies. Feeding data to Google is as good as feeding money to Google. Google is part of the fossil fuel industry (they are in partnership with Totaal oil and use AI to help Totaal find places to drill for oil).
I’m also ethically opposed closed-source software because I think it misplaces power. The worst kind of misplacement of power is to give it to tech giants.
I’m also ethically opposed to software designs that make phones disposable and force the disposal of perfectly good hardware.
W.r.t. paranoia, street wise people and those with some infosec background always seem “paranoid” to normal people. And to us, normal people are cavalier because they needlessly share information without knowing the rule of least privilege. Privilege should only be granted on an as-needed basis and that includes access to information. It’s unreasonable for banks to snoop on people without a warrant.
thelastknowngod@lemm.ee 11 months ago
My man… You are not getting around the tracking. It’s never going to happen. Unless you literally toss everything with a network connection and disconnect from the electric, gas, and water grids, you are going to be tracked.
ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io 11 months ago
I do. I only access banks electronically if they accommodate Tor. The bank only gets to know my physical location when I do a transaction where that’s unavoidable. Even if I were to carry a mobile phone on standby wherever I go, the bank would get nothing from it if I don’t run their app.
thelastknowngod@lemm.ee 11 months ago
So they know when you logged in and what you did when you got there. So you can’t escape it there.
So you can’t escape this either.
They would get nothing except the time, location, amount, business, and how that relates to the other purchases you make and all the data those transactions generate as well. That data is shared with the bank, Visa or MasterCard, and all credit reporting agencies. This is unavoidable too.
You are not getting out of this unless you allow it to seriously affect your life.