Are Santander tracking customers travel?

Chris_in_Ashtead

I got a phone call from Santander recently saying they needed some additional information about me. They wanted to know what my connection is with the Philippines. As it happens, I had just spent 4 weeks in the Philippines attending a wedding and taking some vacation at the same time.

But I never carried out any transactions on either my Santander bank account or credit card while I was outside there, so I have no idea how they even knew I had been in the country at all.

I can only guess that if you have the Santander app installed on your phone it may report back to Santander to let them know your location.

After a long conversation with lots of question about why I was there and whether I had any income from the Philippines or had a business interest there they seemed to accept my explanation.

I just find it rather creepy that my bank would want to know that I had travelled to a certain country and would want to know why.

boingy

Chris_in_Ashtead said:

But I never carried out any transactions on either my Santander bank account or credit card while I was outside there, so I have no idea how they even knew I had been in the country at all.

You should ask them, and don't let them fob you off.

Shakin_Steve

You should have three location permissions for your Santander app. 'Never' is not really a choice, because the app will not work. The other two are 'while using the app' or 'always'. If you set it to 'always', they will always know where you are. But location is the least of your worries, if you are worried about such things, they know a lot more about you than that. 

binao

Shakin_Steve said:

You should have three location permissions for your Santander app. 'Never' is not really a choice, because the app will not work. The other two are 'while using the app' or 'always'. If you set it to 'always', they will always know where you are. But location is the least of your worries, if you are worried about such things, they know a lot more about you than that. 

Try a "subject access request", on second thoughts maybe not.

booneruk

Shakin_Steve said:

You should have three location permissions for your Santander app. 'Never' is not really a choice, because the app will not work. The other two are 'while using the app' or 'always'. 

Well, and without being 100% certain, I suspect the location permissions (which relate to use of the GPS system of the phone within an app) will have no effect when logging into a banking app, which will use an IP address within the country you're in, and give up your location (to a certain extent, it will be region&country) to the service you're accessing.

There's nothing stopping banks looking at the geographic location of IP addresses accessing their services, fraud prevention being one completely justifiable reason.

Did the OP log into their banking app while overseas?

Chris_in_Ashtead

Did the OP log into their banking app while overseas?

He did, but even so I was still surprised that I had the Spanish Inquisition asking me a load of questions about why I was there and whether I had any business or income there. As I said, no transaction have ever been made on any of my Santander accounts from that country. All I did was go on holiday there!

PloughmansLunch

booneruk said:

Shakin_Steve said:

You should have three location permissions for your Santander app. 'Never' is not really a choice, because the app will not work. The other two are 'while using the app' or 'always'. 

Well, and without being 100% certain, I suspect the location permissions (which relate to use of the GPS system of the phone within an app) will have no effect when logging into a banking app, which will use an IP address within the country you're in, and give up your location (to a certain extent, it will be region&country) to the service you're accessing.

There's nothing stopping banks looking at the geographic location of IP addresses accessing their services, fraud prevention being one completely justifiable reason.

Did the OP log into their banking app while overseas?

This sounds like the cause to me. I had a TSB fraud team phone me up because I used my phone app to double check something (home wifi) shortly after using my work laptop for TSB online banking. I use a VPN for work so as far as TSB were concerned I'd teleported 40+ miles in less than 10 minutes

Marchitiello

Many banking app have added this layer of extra security to geo locate the customer so that they will known automatically if a transaction is coming from x country and the customer/app is in the same country is more likely to be legit. Also if someone try to enter your online banking or app from an IP address in a different country. It should not be probed when not transacting though. Did you try to at least log-in the app whilst there? 

Marchitiello

Chris_in_Ashtead said:

Did the OP log into their banking app while overseas?

He did, but even so I was still surprised that I had the Spanish Inquisition asking me a load of questions about why I was there and whether I had any business or income there. As I said, no transaction have ever been made on any of my Santander accounts from that country. All I did was go on holiday there!

Asked the same in my previous post (had not read your answer sorry. 

There are a number of reasons Santander may want to know what relationship you have to particular countries, particularly if they directly operate in that country and have some sort of transparency conditions as part of their banking license in that country (same with most UK bank and the USA, they will enquire and share with the USA if their UK customers are likely to be also USA tax payers). 

friolento

All banks will know, and record, which IP address you use when logging into online banking or the app. It's an essential piece of information for fraud investigation.

What if a stranger / fraudster had logged into your account, with the intent of stealing your money? Would you then have expected the bank to know that it wasn't you because you don't normally log into your account from 6,900 miles away?

That aside, you have agreed to Santander's internet/mobile T&Cs,  which state

7.2 Our digital services may use your location data or information about your device in order to prevent and detect fraud. For example, we may check if you are in the country where your payments are being made in instances where we suspect fraud on your account. We will not use this information for any other purpose.

I know, I know, I don't often read these things myself, either

I doubt you will find many, if any, banks which don't have similar T&Cs.

Chris_in_Ashtead

lcooper said:

What if a stranger / fraudster had logged into your account, with the intent to steal your money? Would you then have expected the bank to know that it wasn't you because you don't normally log into your account from 6,900 miles away?

If it was simply a check to verify that it was really me who had accessed my account then I'd understand that completely. Of course there's nothing unusual about that. But it wasn't anything of the kind. It was a long 30 minute call with a whole series of questions asking why I was there, what business I had there, if I had income originating in the country and so on.