(Finance) – In the last few hours Altroconsumo has received many reports by customers of Italian post That, using the Postepay and Bancoposta apps on their Android phones, they saw each other deliver a message obliging them to authorize access to personal data contained in their smartphone. By allowing access, Poste Italiane would have visibility over much of the data contained in the phone. According to the company, directly contacted by Altroconsumo, this would serve to guarantee greater safety. In fact, according to their statements, this would allow the presence of any malicious software to be detected, making users’ access to apps safer. But the request is disproportionate and, according to Altroconsumo experts, clearly violates the privacy law. Altroconsumo made this known directly in a note.
As stated in the message, authorization it is in fact mandatory: you cannot refuse to grant access to your personal data, otherwise the app will be blocked. According to Poste Italiane it would be a sort of antivirus, but what happens if the app detects the presence of malware on the smartphone remains unknown, no information is provided in this regard.
The information that is made visible to Poste Italiane ranges from possibility of monitoring the activities of other apps installed on the phone (such as, for example, those for home banking, credit cards, and more), to frequency monitoring with which the user uses other apps or their mobile phone, acquiring data on usage behavior and information relating to the telephone operator. Therefore, Poste, which also manages the telephone operator Poste Mobile, would have the possibility of knowing which of its competitors the user is a customer of.
Poste’s request is undoubtedly exorbitant compared to the real security needs and, above all, violates European provisions on privacy, clashing with the European WP29 guidelines and the general principles of the GDPR. Furthermore, consent must always be free and not conditioned by the threat of blocking the service. Altroconsumo, therefore, requests the intervention of the Guarantor to safeguard the protection of customers, users and citizens, also considering the fact that the two apps are essential for access to essential services.
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