Show account balance in iOS widget without being logged into the app.

Tom-Teal-Shark

Sander How many people have multiple accounts? This is an edge case.

Gregory

Tom Plenty of people have personal and business accounts.

And besides that, you are free to unlock your bunq app using the settings for longer periods of time if you want. But if you're not logged in to the app, the widget can't securely retrieve your account data. It wouldn't make sense to somehow give the widget access to your data while keeping the bunq app locked.

Tom-Teal-Shark

Gregory Goijaerts It’s only about the balance of 1 or 2 accounts. Why should security suffer over a convenience that I set myself (which is showing balance before I’m logged in)? ING has been doing it this way for ages with their apps.

Tom-Teal-Shark

Tom * Not logged in to the app, but authenticated by the OS with my face/fingerprint/passcode

Sander

Tom When the app can retrieve the balances without being logged in, then basically anyone can? Doesn't really sound like it should be tbh. I agree that it would be convenient. But as mentioned, you can use the logout timer. Furthermore, there are indeed quite some people that have both personal and business accounts, my point is that unlocking a phone is not the same as identifying someone as the account owner. 🙂

Tom-Teal-Shark

Sander In the case of multiple accounts, the design team will come up with a good solution. For now I think bunq could disable it or have a setting per account and it shows the balance of the last account that has the option enabled to see balance before login.

I do think unlocking a phone is the same as a “light” version of the account owner, basically only showing me account balance if I set it myself. I really don’t see the problem. People have access to much more personal things on my device if they manage to unlock it, e.g. all my photos, emails, messages, browser, Twitter/Facebook/Instagram DMs…

Sander

Tom Disabling this means cutting off quite some people from using the app (there are many that use bunq for both personal and business). Without being logged in in the app and still being able to retrieve balances means that there would need to be a security exception, that allows you to always retrieve the balance basically, which is a quite a security flaw imo. Unlocking a phone gives you access to a ton of data indeed, but I do not agree that bunq should trust this to display sensitive data tbh. I personally think that the time setting for auto logout is a nice workaround, for really important actions (new subscriptions etc) you should be prompted for your hand scan / Passphrase / pin anyway, so it's not like you can do literally everything. 🙂

Gabriel-Green-Tiger

Tom Agreed with OP & Tom. Current “solution” completely defeats the purpose of having a widget for quick glances without having to open the app to check your balance. I love bunq but this is an area where other banks are ahead 🤷‍♂️

OGKevin

The way our system is build, it is not possible to retrieve (sensitive/confidential) information without being logged in. This is ofc due to security reasons. By implementing such thing, that allows you to retrieve information without being securely logged in sounds like a no no, at least to me.

Tom-Teal-Shark

Sander It's not like it will show super personal information like your BSN, your home address, or your latest transactions. It's just your account balance. If you enable it yourself, then I don't see what's the big deal here.

But since it's not technically possible it's probably not worth discussing anymore…

JeroenE

I don't agree with the OP and Tom. If you don't mind other people seeing your private data why would you set the app to auto logout after 5 minutes? Just set it a week and then the widget can show you the balance like you want.

GewoonDenny

Jeroen 🏳️‍🌈 Because “private data” is relative, I don’t find my balance private but I do find my transactions private, that’s why I have auto-logout set to 5 minutes.

Gabriel-Green-Tiger

Jeroen 🏳️‍🌈 What? Seeing your balance in a widget ≠ giving access to the entirety of the app, transaction history, settings, cards, transfers etc if I’d ever hand my phone over to someone unlocked

JeroenE

Dani Winter & Gabriel of course everything is relative. For me I find my balance more private than the fact I just paid 45,23 at the grocery store (which has been announced for the entire store to hear anyway).
In my mind the app and the widget are deeply linked, so if the app is locked the widget should be to. Perhaps I'm clueless because on Android the bunq widget-icon does not show the balance at all (just "scan qr code", "new request", "new payment" and "tap&pay payment").
The only other widget available is for "tap&pay"; that one works with a locked app, but you still have to unlock the tap&pay function before it works (your not really unlocking the app, but only the tap& pay function).

Gabriel-Green-Tiger

Jeroen 🏳️‍🌈 Balance being private for you I understand, but that’s not the case for everyone.

With the app unlocked you can see my transactions, basically a history of the places I’ve been to, you can make bunq posts impersonating as me, you can see my card’s CVC, expiration dates, you can even transfer money between my accounts. That’s all highly personal to me.

I don’t know about the Android app but I’m comparing it to ING. I can quickly see my card balance when I’m in line at the grocery store without having to authenticate and completely open the app, or the way bunq wants it; degrading the entire security of my banking for one small feature

Roeshimi

Gabriel If you don't consider your balance as being private, then why not post it right here? (Just kidding, please don't)

bunq will never be able to satisyf evereyone, nobody can. A simple solution to this could be (as already mentioned a few times before) to add a setting in the app saying "Display my account balance in the widget while locked".
Then people can decide themselves if they want that or not. I know Monese does it this way and I find it to be a good solution.

JeroenE

@Gabriel Yeah, but with your phone unlocked they can also impersonate you on any social media app you have, checkout all your embarrassing selfies in the photo gallery and prank call anyone in the world.
I find it odd that you don't care about all these things, but that is just me.

Roeshimi an extra setting somewhere would seem a nice solution

Edit: I'm nut sure why this is tagged to Roeshimi, I did actually choose Michael ??

Gabriel-Green-Tiger

Roeshimi A setting like that is really all we’re asking for 🙌 I’m not suggesting it’d be the default, just an option for those of us who want convenience and security

Roeshimi

Jeroen 🏳️‍🌈 Yes, one is my public name and the other is my Together name. All good :)