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

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

#71

Post by progbits »

notpushkin wrote: post #8
zb3 wrote: post #5

We can't let banking apps invade our property.. things like banking apps need so much control in order to be secure that they need to exist on dedicated devices.

> things like banking apps need so much control in order to be secure They don’t. It’s a security theatre.

Bank security has and never had anything to do with real security. It's all stupid audit checkboxes and missing forest for the trees. I've dealt with PCI and similar auditors and I wouldn't trust them with my gym locker combination.

My only solution is to have multiple accounts, spread the risk, and rely on legal protections and bailouts when they inevitably screw up.

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

#72

Post by ajb »

phantom784 wrote: post #58
hkt wrote: post #15

Ditch apps on your phone and pick banking that gives good, robust online banking. I was cut off by Starling for something similar and had to choose between a factory reset of my phone and my bank. I explained that my phone had free software on it, some of which I'd written, and it made no difference. Apps are a tool of control and surveillance and it is time we stopped tying ourselves to them. Dumb phones or degoogle…

Would they not just let you keep the account but not use their app in that case?

Starling is an app-only bank.

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

#73

Post by baloki »

phantom784 wrote: post #58
hkt wrote: post #15

Ditch apps on your phone and pick banking that gives good, robust online banking. I was cut off by Starling for something similar and had to choose between a factory reset of my phone and my bank. I explained that my phone had free software on it, some of which I'd written, and it made no difference. Apps are a tool of control and surveillance and it is time we stopped tying ourselves to them. Dumb phones or degoogle…

Would they not just let you keep the account but not use their app in that case?

Some banks only provide access via apps (at least in the UK) so loosing access to the app also means you loose access to the bank account.

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

#74

Post by tuetuopay »

firen777 wrote: post #26

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.

Yup, mine does this, even on the web. Oh god French banks do love their scrambled-digit-keyboards. And boy do they love 6 to 8 digits passwords. That you have to click on using your mouse. No password manager required!

Their app also likes to prompt me periodically for the password instead of the phone's biometrics, which would be good, except it always happens in a public place like the subway, which is the last place I'd want to enter a 6 digit code to my bank account on a scrambled visual keyboard which slows down typing to a point it's trivial to write down (instead of letting muscle memory do its job). Also, it seems like those apps did not get the ATM memo of giving visual/audio feedback on a random delay to user input, to y'know, not letting glancers know what you actually type.

AFAIK this trend of visual scrambled keyboard on the desktop started when keyloggers were rampant. They quickly adapted to screenshot the 20px around the mouse on click when on a bank website. The banks never adapted.

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

#75

Post by gambiting »

embedding-shape wrote: post #20
sschueller wrote: post #9

That's Google's SafeNet. HSBC picked a level that causes this. Google manages the blacklist of apps. We are rapidly losing our freedoms to the will of these companies. If they decide they don't want to they can even if the law doesn't forbid it. People in Switzerland 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. The US has started to sancti…

> 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?

Yeah absolutely - I have an account with mBank in Poland and I got a letter from them saying that I need to declare if I'm a "tax person" in the US and if yes then unfortunately they will be forced to close my account as they would have to report all of my banking to some US insistution and that's not worth the hassle of having me as a client.

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

#76

Post by monooso »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #46
benjiro wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> You misread my comment.

I don't think GP misread your comment at all. I do, however, think you just deliberately truncated your own quote.

Here is what you said, in full (emphasis mine):

> There were some other sanctions involving visas, but as far as I understand that did not affect the individuals' ability to bank.

And here is a quote from the article you read (once again, emphasis mine):

> Beyond the ban on entry into the US, they report that from one day to the next they could no longer receive goods, services, or funds from US companies (e.g., Amazon, Airbnb, PayPal, Visa, Master Card), along with indirect (secondary) effects on transactions with European companies as well, such as their domestic bank or a travel company.

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

#77

Post by mytailorisrich »

pdpi wrote: post #56
delusional wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm an EU citizen and UK resident. If I were to become one of those officials, my banking situation would become much more complex. One of the defining characteristics of the EU (not that the UK ever cared, even before leaving) is Freedom of Movement, and this is a credible threat to that freedom.

When in the EU the UK was actually one of the countries (if not the country) that made freedom of movement the easiest because, indeed, they did not care. You could move there with zero involvement or knowledge from the authorities.

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

#78

Post by sznio »

gambiting wrote: post #75
embedding-shape wrote: post #20

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?

Yeah absolutely - I have an account with mBank in Poland and I got a letter from them saying that I need to declare if I'm a "tax person" in the US and if yes then unfortunately they will be forced to close my account as they would have to report all of my banking to some US insistution and that's not worth the hassle of having me as a client.

Wondering why. I have an account with PKO BP and never got asked that, and I've used it to do business with US individuals.

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

#79

Post by monooso »

raverbashing wrote: post #29
hkt wrote: 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]

Maybe this will help you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came

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

#80

Post by pdpi »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #77
pdpi wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an EU citizen and UK resident. If I were to become one of those officials, my banking situation would become much more complex. One of the defining characteristics of the EU (not that the UK ever cared, even before leaving) is Freedom of Movement, and this is a credible threat to that freedom.

When in the EU the UK was actually one of the countries (if not the country) that made freedom of movement the easiest because, indeed, they did not care. You could move there with zero involvement or knowledge from the authorities.

Yeah, moving here involved basically buying a plane ticket, and, after I got here, booking an appointment to get a National Insurance number (basically equivalent to an American Social Security number). Never occurred to me that moving to any other EU country might be harder than that.
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