Banks that have not been around long are often more careless with online privacy than longer established banks. That's according to a Consumentenbond survey of 13 banks in the Netherlands.
Of the 13 banks surveyed, four appear to score below par on the Privacy Meter, which measures the extent to which companies comply with the AVG. The meter is designed to give consumers insight into how companies handle their data. New banks Revolut, Bunq, N26 and Openbank scored moderately to poorly on the meter.
For example, Revolut, Bunq and N26 were found to share customer data with Facebook and marketing agencies. Moreover, all of the underperforming new banks were found to make mistakes when placing cookies. Revolut and Bunq place unsolicited cookies, and N26 and Openbank do not properly ask for permission.
As a result of the survey, Consumer Bank took issue with the banks that scored poorly on the Privacy Meter. Bunq defended its own practices by stating that customer data is only shared with third parties to improve its website and app. Several other banks promised to improve privacy safeguards.
