Credit Union App: User Tracking

Two years ago I installed the DuckDuckGo browser on my phone and activated its app tracker blocking, which is basically a fake VPN swatting known tracker destinations out of the bitstream.

Somewhat to my surprise, the credit union’s app attempted to send my personally identifiable bits to a destination seemingly unrelated to any banking needs:

So I called up the credit union and asked:

• Why was their app sending that information to a third party?
• How do I disable that tracking, because I do not want those companies to know every time I use the app?
• Why did they think this was a good idea?

Over the course of the next few weeks and many follow-up calls, I was told:

• I must be mistaken, there is no tracking
• My information is correct, but the credit union doesn’t have a relationship with that company
• They do have a relationship, but the app doesn’t send any of my information to that company
• They only send the information if I am responding to a survey
• The app does send my information even without my responding to a survey, but in accord with their privacy policy
• OK, the credit union’s privacy policy doesn’t specifically describe their app, but the companies behind the app have privacy policies at various links
• Even though the documents at those links describe the general sharing arrangement between each company and the credit union, I am not authorized to see the specific agreements related to my information
• I can opt out of the tracking by setting an option in my account profile
• OK, that option doesn’t exist, but when I disable the app’s access to my location, the tracking will cease

The intensity of the tracking attempts continued, even after disabling location sharing and not opening the app on any given day:

Eventually, I was told, in no uncertain terms:

• If I don’t want to be tracked, I should not use the app
• This will be their final discussion of the subject

They never did answer any of my original questions.

As I get very few checks in the mail, I have had little occasion to fire up the app since then.

The tracking continues apace, albeit with a different cast of characters:

You might think “The Trade Desk” has something to do with financial trading. You would be wrong.

I expect commercial banks to be even worse, so there’s nothing to be done.

Apart, of course, from blocking app tracking attempts with DuckDuckGo, using Firefox (with uBlock Origin) rather than Chrome, and running Pi-Hole on a Raspberry Pi for the home network. I admit my faith is touching.