Big Brother Bank Tracks Customers Phones

Mick Meaney
RINF Alternative News
Millions of Barclays bank account holders will have their mobile devices tracked from October this year.  The banking giant also plans to sell customer’s purchasing information to third party companies or government departments, it has been revealed.
Barclays will make this level of big brother surveillance mandatory for all customers and have refused to let account holders ‘opt-out’ of the invasive scheme. If you don’t like it, your only option is to close your account.
The bank has written to customers informing them that ‘information about the transactions on your account’ will be used to compile reports about spending trends across Britain. They also claim that the Orwellian-style tracking of mobile devices will help them to combat fraud.
Speaking to ComputerworldUK, a Barclays spokesperson defended the bank:

“We only use information in a numerical, anonymised and aggregated way as is standard practice at many companies.
“It is not about providing information for sales or marketing use and does not include any personal data.
“This is all in accordance with industry guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office and the law.”

This is perhaps a result of massive EU lobbying by Barclays and other companies, according to Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group:

“Users need control of their data. Barclays should be asking people to opt in, rather than opt out, of data collection. Barclays’ privacy changes are just one more reason why new strong data protection needs to be implemented in Europe.
“As Barclays has been part of the massive lobby effort tabling 4,000 amendments to water the EU regulation down, MEPs should trust Barclays’ motives to change the law even less now they can see what the bank thinks meaningful consent and control really means for its customers.”