Live data from Hacker News

HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

41–50 of 242 posts

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the EU are being de-banked by local banks because of US pressure allowing them to force any bank that wants to use USD What is this about? I'm a EU citizen, never heard about any EU citizen getting removed from any EU bank because of USD. Nor have I heard anyone being sanctioned by the US in the EU unless they're Russia-related somehow. Is there any link to a story about this?

People investigation Israel for war crimes tend to get sanctioned by the Americans. Because European banks don't have the necessary guardrails to block an individual account from participating in their American-facing banking operations, they have to choose between being sanctioned themselves or kicking out their America-sanctioned customers. The real solution is for them to fix their shitty systems but I don't a han…

Not to sound cynical, but what's to stop these officials from picking non-multinational regional bank?

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#42
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-28/the-comp...

That sort of sanctioning is world-wide, isn't it? Not specifically targeting EU banks, but rather she's blacklisted from any bank in the world who follows those blacklisting lists, at least from what I understand it. Parent's comment gave me the impression that this was something exclusive to EU (and Swiss) banks in particular, since they were mentioned by name.

The world as defined by the US yeah.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the EU are being de-banked by local banks because of US pressure allowing them to force any bank that wants to use USD What is this about? I'm a EU citizen, never heard about any EU citizen getting removed from any EU bank because of USD. Nor have I heard anyone being sanctioned by the US in the EU unless they're Russia-related somehow. Is there any link to a story about this?

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/n... There were some other sanctions involving visas, but as far as I understand that did not affect the individuals' ability to to bank: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/us-bans-visas-for-ex-eu-comm...

> as far as I understand that did not affect the individuals' ability to to bank

Did you read the article?

The judge reported closed/blocked bank accounts, booking being cancelled (successful booked, then later cancelled by the companies)...

https://verfassungsblog.de/sanctions-us-icc-united-states/

From a other poster:

> He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction.

Same with recently Garry Kasparov been designated a "T" by Russia. Banks simply do not take risks dealing with hot customers, as this can affect their entire business (especially if they have branches in the US).

So they rather railroad individuals that have little power, then take the risk that they will lose millions if the US sanctions their bank. Its also linked to a lot of other things.

Somebody who worked at a bank gave a description yesterday on how it works. And if your on that list, you are really in a world of hurt.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#44
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An Italian citizen who was debanked essentially because Trump didn't like her: https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-28/the-comp... When it comes to this kind of thing, an injury to one is an injury to all and we need to not tolerate it. At minimum, we need regulations guaranteeing that Visa and MasterCard, as well as participating banks, aren't allowed to debank anyone without judicial oversight. Make the…

[flagged]

Irrelevant. I'd prefer laws and the courts to decide punishment for transgressions, rather than the arbitrary whims of a quasi-fascist. I'm old fashioned, I know.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#45
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-28/the-comp...

That sort of sanctioning is world-wide, isn't it? Not specifically targeting EU banks, but rather she's blacklisted from any bank in the world who follows those blacklisting lists, at least from what I understand it. Parent's comment gave me the impression that this was something exclusive to EU (and Swiss) banks in particular, since they were mentioned by name.

I think the meaning was "people are now targeted even in the EU".

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#46
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/19/n... There were some other sanctions involving visas, but as far as I understand that did not affect the individuals' ability to to bank: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/us-bans-visas-for-ex-eu-comm...

> as far as I understand that did not affect the individuals' ability to to bank Did you read the article? The judge reported closed/blocked bank accounts, booking being cancelled (successful booked, then later cancelled by the companies)... https://verfassungsblog.de/sanctions-us-icc-united-states/ From a other poster: > He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel r…

> There were some other sanctions involving visas, but as far as I understand

Yes, I read the article. You misread my comment.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#47
post #7

It will not work either if you have developer mode enabled. These things HSBC app does, I think it's overreaching

My country launched an identification app (https://mygov.be/) that does the same thing. I have no idea what they're trying to achieve. Security through obscurity? Trying to piss off power users?

I'm a developer and use adb and some dev settings daily. Annoying af to have to disable developer mode constantly.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People investigation Israel for war crimes tend to get sanctioned by the Americans. Because European banks don't have the necessary guardrails to block an individual account from participating in their American-facing banking operations, they have to choose between being sanctioned themselves or kicking out their America-sanctioned customers. The real solution is for them to fix their shitty systems but I don't a han…

Not to sound cynical, but what's to stop these officials from picking non-multinational regional bank?

This isn't just about being a customer to a multinational bank: this also includes European banks who do business with American banks. For instance, most credit/debit cards in Europe are based on either Mastercard or Visa. All banks I know of will allow you to pay in dollars through online banking.

I don't think there are any European banks that don't communicate with American payment providers in some way by default. It's possible that there are some that trust their feature gates enough to take on these sanctioned people (like government-run banks for those who can't get a normal bank account, i.e. because of a history of fraud and crime), but I don't think these banks will advertise that ability.

Perhaps if she'd take an Iranian, North Korean, or Russian bank account, she might be able to do America-free banking, but that's not very practical outside of Iran, North Korea, or Russia at the moment.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#49

Tangentially related, but some banking apps also implement their own in-app keyboard in their password fields, making password manager unusable and basically forcing me to use a easy to remember (to guess) password.

On the same tangent. My former bank forced me to use a 6 - 8 digit password with only numbers allowed. Not sure if in the few years since I am not a customer anymore, they changed this policy, though.

Re: HSBC blocks its app due to F-Droid-installed Bitwarden

#50
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think from HSBC's risk management perspective, it's fairly reasonable

A bank refusing you access because of your accessibility settings (app overlay is one) is not reasonable.

risk management is all about what the bank is willing to trust. in this case it decided it was risky because have any information on the provenance of your overlay, but you could source an overlay from somewhere they trust, like the default app store.
Post reply on HN