Whenever the interest rate is higher on the app, or the price is discounted or whatever, I assume the price difference is being made up by harvesting and selling my data. This is reinforced by the fact that most apps are designed like total shit, offering a worse experience than a web browser. Therefore the only reason I can speculate they made an app at all was because apps offer a larger hole in our integument through which they can sneak.

I don’t buy the security argument at all, it’s all just “rot economy” nonsense. I am old enough to have deposited paper checks physically to a bank teller. They would scrutinize the details and more than once I was challenged over minor discrepancies. This was less convenient than electronic processes but it no way was it less secure. Info moved with difficulty then, but that included theft. Laws regarding warrants and surveillance were very clear cut and relatively strict compared to their digital equivalents. I don’t think people who lived before the surveillance age realize just how much privacy has eroded. There was a time when having all your private data stolen was a huge deal. Now I’ve lost count of how many court-ordered “Identity Protection” services I’ve been offered by companies with terrible security practices, many of which I never directly did business with at all.

I haven’t totally chucked apps like the dude in the story but I get it. FOSS apps are my compromise.