Without Intermediaries

Intermediaries and Data Providers

Most personal finance applications work with data providers to retrieve your banking information. These providers mainly operate without the approval of financial institutions. They act as intermediaries between personal finance applications and financial institutions.

Data providers operate in a grey area. Currently, in Canada, there is no defined standard allowing financial institutions to share their data with their customers. Therefore, data providers must use alternative means to retrieve your information. Using automated processes, they connect to your bank's portal with your login information and retrieve your financial data.

Protecting Your Data and Privacy

To provide services to their partners, data providers do not limit themselves to recording your login information. They record all operations performed on your accounts:

Login ID and password

Account numbers

Account balances, credit card, mortgage

All transactions and their recipients

Your debts, salary, investments

Complete picture of your financial situation

Your spending trends

Financial data are among the most sensitive and sought-after information on the Internet. Their exposure to unauthorized third parties presents a significant risk to the financial and personal security of individuals. The consequences of unauthorized access to these data can be devastating.

Among the risks involved are identity theft, where criminals use the information to open fake accounts, take out loans, or make online purchases in the victim's name. Financial fraud is also a major threat, where fraudsters can empty bank accounts, make unauthorized transactions, or even obtain loans using stolen information.

Moreover, the violation of privacy is a growing issue, where details of spending habits and transactions can be exploited for advertising targeting or even sold to third parties without the individual's consent.

A False Promise of Security

Although data providers claim to adhere to the highest security standards, there is a clear gap in this promise: your login information is recorded. To illustrate, imagine a sophisticated security system equipped with cameras, but the key is left under the doormat. Even if your login information is encrypted when stored, a malicious individual could potentially decrypt it.

Storing your financial data further increases the risk of leakage. The more data providers in possession of your financial information, the more you multiply the risks of leaks, as you must trust each of these intermediaries for the security of your data.

By adopting a decentralized approach, we eliminate this risk of leakage, as each client holds their own data.