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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

#151

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…

> 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

That's not quit accurate.

American citizens will indeed have a very hard time to open a bank account in Switzerland. But the reason is not so much free speech than FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) [0] [1]

The requirements to host bank accounts for Americans are so onerous that banks rather forgo business with such clients than having to deal with the legal mess it incurs.

Another reason for a bank not wanting to deal with customers are if they are on a sanctions list. People winding up on such lists usually don't do so, because they said something nasty about Mr. Trump.

This, alas, may change if you look who got sanctioned in recent times just for raising the ire of the president (such as EC commissioners or ICC judges).

[0] https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/tax-policy/foreign-a... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance...

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

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless they're Russia-related somehow this is doing a lot of work. at what point person stops being Russia related in your view?

Having no ties to businesses or individuals located in Russia. Like myself and countless of others.

EU paid Russia since the full scale Russian aggression more money for gas, oil, coal etc. than to support Ukraine. By that logic almost all EU citizens has ties to Russia as they use electricity/gas partially supplied by Russia.

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

#153

Never use a banking app on a phone especially since internet banking websites exist.

Most of them switched to stupid apps described above. 6 to 8 char passwords, 6 char PIN codes etc. I don't know how they pass security audits, unless the audits are merely a protection tax.

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

#154

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…

> 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 That's not quit accurate. American citizens will indeed have a very hard time to open a bank account in Switzerland. But the reason is not so much free speech than FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) [0] [1] The requirements to host bank accounts for Americans are s…

> because they said something nasty about Mr. Trump

Well that's outrageous, I'm sure you've got a list of such people ready to tell us about it.

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

#155
If you've ever built a website for mobile but never heard of PWAs (Progressive Web Apps), I recommend checking them out. In essence, adding 2 files can make the site installable from a mobile browser and define caching behavior for offline functionality.

1. manifest.json: a JSON file that defines the app's name, icons, theme colors, and how it should launch when installed.

2. Service worker: a JS file that controls things like resource caching for offline usage

Unfortunately PWAs don't receive first class support compared to native apps. Still, I still hope to see wider adoption. I think for many not-too-complex apps, they can significantly lower the cost of development, and the development experience could be as simple as

- Building with HTML + JS + CSS. No clunky SDKs, reduced need to test on painfully slow emulators or expensive physical devices

- Installable from a browser. No need to maintain a listing in the Playstore/App Store, avoiding policy headaches, rent, etc.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web...

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

#157
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They flag "sideloading" - or anything installed by anything outside of their store. They don't always flag it. Only when SafeNet is set to paranoid levels. However, sideloading is considered a risk for some reason. Even if sideloading is a synonym for "installing".

What if you install the app via adb install? That would flag all developers' phones so I'm almost sure it's not flagged.

Dev mode flags at paranoid level, so I'm almost certain it would.

The developers of this app would have it turned off during debug builds, and on during release, so would be fine.

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

#158

I thought Google removed the API that let you see other apps on the device. Maybe there's another API I'm not aware of though

Everyone knows all the apps on your phone

https://peabee.substack.com/p/everyone-knows-what-apps-you-u...

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43518866

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

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in Switzerland banks can choose to not use Play Integrity, but they generally don't want to. Yuh, which once was owned by both Postfinance and Swissquote, works without Play Integrity. Support for GrapheneOS is confirmed - see https://github.com/PrivSec-dev/banking-apps-compat-report/is... The real issue is that most "legacy" banks have to comply with stupid regulations that force them to come up with these…

SafeNet != SafetyNet nor Play Integrity?

I thought it was just a spelling mistake. Is there really a "SafeNet" by Google? I wouldn't be surprised they made it even more confusing
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