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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

#121

Post by AnonymousPlanet »

wakawaka28 wrote: post #88
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…

Do you think US pressure is behind the push for online censorship across the West? It seems to be a coordinated effort in many countries, whatever it is.

Concerning an apparent coordinated effort it might be more complicated than that. The EU and Australia have always been on the verge of sweeping censorship. Look up "Zensursula" [1][2] and the censorship list that was about to be introduced in 2008 and that, for legal reasons, was illegal to even be looked at by journalists. Back then there was significant public backlash and also indirect cristicism by the US government [3].

Today there is no such criticism from the US because censorship is something that is also of an interest to the christian backers of the current government.

When the cat is out of the house, the mice dance on your dinner table.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugangserschwerungsgesetz

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Austral...

3: https://web.archive.org/web/20100123181634/http://www.abc.ne...

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

#123

Post by andrepd »

phantom784 wrote: post #52
grahamedgecombe wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still request permission to use it for apps distributed via Google Play for a limited set of use cases: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ... which is then subject to Google reviewing and approving it. I assume HSBC are using the "antivirus" use case.

Interesting, that also permits: > Real-money gambling apps where the core purpose of the app is real money gambling and where the app requires broad package visibility in order to comply with technical standards mandated by applicable geofencing regulations. I presume that's to allow the gambling apps to make sure you don't have a location spoofing app installed?

13 year olds can get groomed and addicted to gambling, be they at home, school, or a bus stop. But God forbid you install an app outside the approved™ app store®, citizen. What a world.

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

#124

Post by raverbashing »

andrepd wrote: post #116
raverbashing wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

You're the one advocating to help people whom not even their neighbours who share the same religion want nothing to do with it so I think you're the one who's joking

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

#125

Post by danw1979 »

HSBC still operate a perfectly functional website for banking.

The more people who continue to use this, the better. It sends a clear signal that customers prefer the open web over restrictive and inconvenient mobile apps.

I’m also hanging on to my bank’s physical RSA fob as my 2FA, instead of using their app based version.

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

#126

Post by Zak »

kjksf wrote: post #86
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]

It's fair to assign the blame for actions of the executive branch of the US government to Trump while he holds the office of president. The policy of sanctioning people for being too critical of Israel required his assent whether or not he made the call to apply it in this case or delegated that to a subordinate.

Especially problematic is that her actions would be unambiguously protected speech under US law if she did them in the USA.

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

#127

Post by ben_w »

pdpi wrote: post #105
ben_w wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience moving to Germany from the UK in 2018 was only one step harder than that from bureaucracy — two appointments, one for social security and the other for an ID card. Not even that I had a much poorer grasp of the German language than I realised was a problem*, as the bureaucracy is mostly bilingual and when it isn't has interpreters. The only actual hard part was just that the rental market in Berlin has…

> The only actual hard part was just that the rental market in Berlin has vastly more demand than supply. If you were in London, it's like you never left home!

One of Cambridge's commuter villages. Was a home owner, still am, very useful passive income.

I'm not sure about how London compares, but Berlin has rent controls so the queues for open house viewings around here can go all the way down the apartment staircase and along the street.

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

#128

Post by worble »

lol768 wrote: post #18

Plenty of UK banks that don't require this, and whose apps will also work on a rooted device. Monzo will display a warning that sets out the fact there's an increased risk, and then lets you be an adult and choose to continue to use the app if that's what you want to do. The best part is that the Current Account Switching Service makes it very easy to make the jump from a legacy bank like HSBC.

They've all started cracking down, in the past year the Barclays and Lloyds app have broken on my phone.

TSB still works for now, but even for a bank they're technologically incompetent so I'm going to just assume they're behind the curve rather than willingly not using SafetyNet.

The only one I would bank on still working in the future is Monzo, since, like you say, they detect it and just give you scary warning and let you continue.

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

#129

Post by symbogra »

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…

I can confirm that the Postfinance app doesn't work on graphene. I left some feedback and they said they're working on it so maybe there is hope. But as such I need to keep an old iphone around for banking apps.

Also being an American in Switzerland trying to do banking is eye opening. Local banks mostly tell you to pound sand when they find out you're American. Regardless of this or that administration, the US is really totalitarian when it comes to finance and taxes.

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

#130

Post by jraph »

mkleczek wrote: post #90
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…

Here on HN I will be downvoted to oblivion but well... let's be it: There is no other way for us mortals than to go back to cash... Or start using Bitcoin. Be your own bank. Vote with your money.

Yes you might, because Bitcoin doesn't solve anything correctly (notably, its value is so volatile it can't be relied upon), while consuming an absurd amount of energy.

By design, it made its first users stupidly rich, which is not a good characteristic.

More importantly, it's a technical solution for a societal issue (aka, it's not at all a solution).

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