Since we got into the subject of banks in my last post, here is something that’s bothering me with NBK. Every time I launch the NBK app on my iPhone, I get the pop-up above asking me to agree on having NBK know (and most likely track) my whereabouts so that stores could target me with ads while I’m out shopping. Obviously this isn’t something I’m interested in but NBK doesn’t give me the choice to opt-out. The only options are either “Accept” or “Go to settings” with no option to decline. If you go to settings it just gives you a box to tick to enable NBK Geo Alerts.
If you don’t enable geo alerts and click cancel, the next time you launch the app you get the same pop-up again and have to go through the same process all over again. It’s super sneaky and anybody less tech-savvy would most likely have clicked “Accept” at the pop-up not knowing what kind of privacy they were giving up. I already made NBK aware of this issue twice on twitter but they don’t think this is an issue.
22 replies on “Any other NBK customer find this annoying and privacy-invasive ?”
Did you try complaining to the citra?
No but I’m curious now if this is something they’d be interested in 🤔
are u sure that every time nbk ask your consent to opt-in even you stated that you do not want to use the geo alerts at first login. this is not the case for me. i stated that i do not want to use the service and now i can be able to use the app as it is before.
by the way i am very sorry to say it to you but google and apple already knows you better than your mom since u r using their operating systems. if you are still using nokia 3310 u may be safe 😉
There is no way to say u do not want to use this service, I get the option to accept or the option to go to settings. I’ve left the box unchecked in the settings but when I exit and come back to app the next day I get the pop up again. U can force quit the app after use and restart you’ll see it again.
this is not my experience. i did not accept (not checked the checkbox) and go settings and without enabling the service quit settings page and using the service without having geo-alerts. several times login and logout and still not getting pop-up.
umm here you go, this is a few minutes ago
https://imgur.com/a/a6Sjaib
This is a super cheap move from NBK to track their clients
NBK have started illegal practices and they have inside gangsters working for them that may shut your account if you even say boo to their staff or if you are a competition to their friends. They are gangsters in suits shutting down small honest businesses for monopolies they have it coming to them.
Do they drive 1930s Cadillacs and come into your house saying “your money is ours, see? N’yeah n’yeah” cause that is exactly what happened to me when I told the manager their app was completely “Zeg” or shit to you and me. “They shut down businesses” I’m sorry but how? Do they shoot it with machine guns and quickly drive to their hq in Manhattan.. I mean Kuwait City.
Banks in Kuwait are not customer experience driven. They are driven by pleasing their own risk and compliance and audit teams, and finding easy ways out to deflect risk . This happens even if it means degrading the user experience. Also, increasing Kuwaitization has resulted in layoffs of the qualified digital banking specialists who have the ability to truly transform consumer banking to a world class experience.
True but not fully true. Ahli bank in Kuwait is the exception. I’m waiting for a few months and then going to switch from cbk to them. I’m sticking with cbk because of my Kuwaiti Account Mgr. She is an exception in customer service and among Kuwaiti women especially.
That said, the 2nd half of your argunent may hold water. Looks like kuwaitization might be the reason. It takes one Kuwaiti to understand what drives another and make such an ill designed feature. God save the banks
It is very annoying. Best thing to do is to enable NBK geotagging but disable location services for the NBK app.
Best thing to do is to not use the app, or switch to a different, more secure and consumer-conscious bank if you really don’t want to be tracked.
It is still possible to track your device using WiFi or Bluetooth in some cases, sometimes even more reliably than GPS.
If you’re freaking out that much over this, are you taking other measures to prevent companies from tracking you? (examples are Android phones tracking very detailed position changes, getting in and out of cars, entering buildings, etc all without even having internet access, or dictations being saved in searchable text form – go to activity.google.com and check out what Google has on you). all of that without even being on a specific app, the OS itself does that.
Yeah, if you have an iPhone (which I think you have Mark) then you can disable it within system settings.
However – personally I’ve never had a problem with companies knowing where I am. It doesn’t really matter that they know (it’s not like they’re tracking you on an individual level) and the feature is useful. Starbucks, for example – they’re loyalty card pops up automatically when you’re in one of their shops. My boarding passes pop up when I arrive at an airport.
With NBK it’s really handy – when I was in the avenues the other day and we were deciding where to eat, the NBK flashed up automatically where we got double points on our credit card if we ate there. Obviously you’re never going to decide where to eat based on that but if you have a couple of choices and one gives you double points then it’s gonna influence……
So to me it’s a bit…..meh – don’t really care – but I agree 100% they should give you the option to enable it or not…
NBK shouldn’t leverage their clients information (anonymous or not) for marketing without clear consent and its frustrating they won’t give users a clear opt in option.
Compared to the app for my US account, NBK is encouraging spending behavior rather than developing budget, graphical allocations and native wealth management.
Sorry about the rant but they are behind the curve and NBK should look at FinTech disrupters and value their clients as assets not marketing commodities.
Dude NBK were doing campaigns the last couple of years encouraging people to withdraw CASH from their CREDIT CARDS. Do you know how effed up that is?
Truly despicable and short-sighted behavior. They seem to have lost their way. Truly Sad.
I don’t think any of the banks encourage savings and budgets in their apps, except Warba. And if they are, then it is very poorly advertised. Budgets and wealth management can be easily used to sell investment accounts and savings products where they can take your cash and use it instead of your money, just sitting there with no use. They would encourage you to take a loan or use your credit card, but there’s no point for your cash to leave the bank.
Most of the time, retailers and restaurants fail to tell you that your bank card is eligible for an offer or discount when you’re paying. It’s a useful function for me. As for tracking, it’s a bit too late for that. Your data is already tracked by a handful of entities, like Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Meanwhile, your contact information is already sold and bombarded with spam by the telecoms without any regulation.
I did turn mine on originally, but I Noticed quite a heavy battery drain – so I definitely turned it off!
I dont agree with you , its a very nice feature if you think about it for shopping , if you dont like the feature you can easily disable it through settings thats it 🙂
Thats the thing, it’s useful for some people, creepy for other people. The point here is like there is an option to “Accept” there should be an option to “Decline”. And one you decline you should have to deal with the pop up every time you launch the app. Right now the way NBK has the pop up it’s basically forcing you to accept which is whats sneaky about it.
If they really wanted to tell you about offers and promotions near where you are, let them check location only while you’re using the app. However having the app accessing your location the entire time is outright creepy. Especially given the fact that this is Kuwait and everyone knows how this data will be handled and how the data will be used.