FNB Android app permissions explained

Wait what?

So they don't want to spy on us, and track us through our phones!??!

Does that mean House was wrong again?
 
Nothing New at all Android apps take control of your entire phone.

If your worried about privacy and security ,you should be using a BlackBerry device.
Nothing is as secure as BlackBerry .

Android apps work on BlackBerry10.
 
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ToxicBunny said:
Wait what?

So they don't want to spy on us, and track us through our phones!??!

Does that mean House was wrong again?
Click to expand...

But none of these given "explanations" actually explain away the possibilities of exploitation, via malice or incompetence.

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Contacts
Used by the phone feature of the app to make free calls to FNB call centres, bankers and other FNB app users, or to call any number in your contact list at discounted rates. Also allows the client to purchase pre-paid or send money directly from contacts.
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...well course that's what it "officially' uses the contact list for. It still gets access to the contacts list. If the app is compromised or badly designed, it could leak this data. Security risk #660 (http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/s... Using Data from Leaky Smartphone Apps to Spy)

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Location
Used by the Geo Payments feature to let you pay someone within close proximity using GPS location, without exchanging bank details. It is also used by the branch and ATM locator to find the nearest location to you.
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...well of course the GPS is required to enable these location-based-services, but by making use of them, the bank will know where you are. If the bank is compromised, others will know where you are. Your phone company, and the security cluster, already know where you are. Security risk #661 (https://www.eff.org/wp/locational-privacy) and (http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...ip-data-of-NYC-cabs-easily-reverse-engineered)

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SMS
Used when linking an eWallet to the FNB app. A one-time PIN that is SMSed to you is read by the FNB app to authenticate your device. This is so you don’t need to enter the one time PIN when making transactions on the App.
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Of course the app needs SMS access to make use of SMS features to implement application requirements, but once an app has access, it can do what it wants, and it's a black box, so you don't know what it wants. Security risk #662 (http://boingboing.net/2012/08/23/civilwar.html)

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Phone
Used to make a call over your mobile operator network when the phone feature of the FNB app is unavailable, such as when you don’t have good data network quality at the time of making the call.
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Did you read that? You are supposed to only make calls through the FNB app now, unless for some reason you have to fall back to the basic system. Build it and they will come!. Security risk#663 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish)

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Photos
Used by the messaging feature of the FNB app to send photos to another FNB app user that you are chatting to. Apart from in-chat multimedia you can also send money, airtime, data bundles or iTunes vouchers to the person that you are chatting to. FNB has patented its in-chat money transfer system in South Africa.
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Well of course if the app provides photo-based features then it would need access to the camera, but now another app has access to the camera. This means your bank has access to your camera, if the bank if compromised, or the FNB software has vulnerabilities, it could be hijacked for other purposes. Also goodbye anonymous cash transfers. The bank and the attached authorities will know more and more about your spending habits and social circle. Security risk #664 (http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_globalbanking48.htm)

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Wi-Fi Connection Information
This allows the FNB app to connect via Wi-Fi
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This is an "explanation"? Security risk #665 (http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/0...s-can-take-your-pulse-right-through-the-walls)

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Device ID
This is used to identify the device when the app connects to FNB.
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Well, the bank knows you best, doesn't it? Security risk #666 (http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_bigbrother48.htm)


All these different "permissions" on the OS are pointless if every app "needs" every one of them...
 
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No, it doesn't explain away the possiblity, but to think that the bank actually gives two tosses about "exploiting" your data and location is just ridiculous. You as a person and your data are not that important to them, it is not worth their while to even try, they make more money managing your money anyway.
 
ToxicBunny said:
...but to think that the bank actually gives two tosses about "exploiting" your data and location is just ridiculous. You as a person and your data are not that important to them, it is not worth their while to even try, they make more money managing your money anyway.
Click to expand...

I simply don't believe this, but that's the difference between you and I ;)

And given my sub-basement level of capitalization, it may well be that my data streams are more profitable to them. The particular spelling mistakes in name's and addresses made (by clerks) on particular bank forms keep popping up in the mail from all sorts (bless the postal sevices who always manage to figure it out though)...
 
Then don't use the app and order a spare tinfoil hat ;)
 
PsyWulf said:
Then don't use the app and order a spare tinfoil hat ;)
Click to expand...

I couldn't use the app becaue I don't have a phone.
I don't have a phone because in this great land of ours, we all require a license to speak digitally (and not necessarily privately, at that) which I disagree with...

...but soon enough the authorities, in collusion with ever-more-powerful market forces will bequeath a mandatory cellphone upon me, along with one of those wrist bands that track my health statistics and levels of nervousness, most likely. But all these clumsy, tricksy hand-held devices will soon go the way of the dinosaur, when the promise of body-integrated bio-electronics really takes off!
 
Fingolfin said:
I simply don't believe this, but that's the difference between you and I ;)

And given my sub-basement level of capitalization, it may well be that my data streams are more profitable to them. The particular spelling mistakes in name's and addresses made (by clerks) on particular bank forms keep popping up in the mail from all sorts (bless the postal sevices who always manage to figure it out though)...
Click to expand...

Its not about belief, its about reality.

A bank is there to make money, not to spy on you. You are not that important to them for them to spy on you.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Its not about belief, its about reality.
A bank is there to make money, not to spy on you. You are not that important to them for them to spy on you.
Click to expand...

...But they are a large personal data sink - a set of relatively monopolistic black-box honey-pots for Evil Folk, in and out, to plunder.

Spying on the banks is also mandated by law, FICA in this case. They are explicitly set up to enable third-party "authorities" to spy on you financially (and soon, since things like this Android app turn the bank into a social playground...who knows - it may enable them to spy on you in other sectors of your life)
A recent billboard on the N1 goes something along the lines of "From your daily milk to your mansion - use a credit card!"

Now the bankers themselves may not care about how much milk I'm drinking, but somebody does...
 
Ok, dude...

You and House, really should get together and have a beer and discuss the distopian reality you both live in.
 
Them clones them clones them,crazy clones
 
Fingolfin said:
I simply don't believe this, but that's the difference between you and I ;)

And given my sub-basement level of capitalization, it may well be that my data streams are more profitable to them. The particular spelling mistakes in name's and addresses made (by clerks) on particular bank forms keep popping up in the mail from all sorts (bless the postal sevices who always manage to figure it out though)...
Click to expand...

*you and me
*names
*services
 
Oh the naivety....

This is the reason why some people really do not deserve privacy.
 
<body-armor>
I can just chuckle at the people protesting about the "privacy" issue. You have none! Get over it!
</body-armor>
 
The app is fantastic. Some of us use a lot of those features on offer and find them helpful
 
ToxicBunny said:
Its not about belief, its about reality.

A bank is there to make money, not to spy on you. You are not that important to them for them to spy on you.
Click to expand...

Exactly, and if they can make a fair bit of extra money by selling your data to marketers why wouldn't they?
 
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