A really big surprise following the creation of my secondo profile on my GrapheneOS, which i created explicitly to have a google environment where I could keep bank apps segregated. So, I removed bank apps and Google play store on main profile, created 2nd profile, installed Google play store on 2nd profile, then installed the bank app, which I successfully logged onto the first time. The second time it locked me out saying that my account was blocked. I called the bank and they said I have malware and I need to hard reset my phone and reinstall. I’m not telling them what my real setup is because they won’t understand. I wonder why the bank app thinks I have malware if I only have Google play store, the bank app and WhatsApp on my second profile?
Just sharing my day to day experience where I try to pursue privacy but I get screwed by the system. If you don’t give up all you data, your life is made difficult. That is why people choose convenience and don’t question too much. Its hassle free. How do we get out of this messed up system?
What a shitty banking app. The malware explanation could just be customer service boilerplate. They might have just implemented some commercial fingerprinting/analysis/security library in the app that freaked out at the minimal fingerprint of the GrapheneOS profile and defaulted to locking you out.
As individuals, we need to continue defending and advocating for our privacy - using privacy-respecting phones and software even if it’s difficult and organize against surveillance capitalism, or at least donate to existing advocacy groups. And the developers that make privacy-respecting alternatives more accessible. Not much of an easy way out since we’re up against Big Tech on a profoundly uneven playing field.
But for immediate issues like this, I would get a cheap separate phone with regular Android to handle the app if the bank doesn’t offer the same services through a browser. Try to keep it on an isolated network and only power it on when necessary.