Screen scraping technology allows financial service providers to collate data such as account balances and transactions from a customers' internet banking interface and use it to provide personal financial management services.
The popular money management app has already disabled screen scraping for Australia's four major banks and is planning to do the same for at least 50 other banks prior to year's end.
Screen-scraping usually involves the user sharing their banking ID and password with such services.
Budgeting app Pocketbook utilised the controversial methods to gather budgeting and banking insights from its users, prior to its closure a month ago.
Frollo CEO Tony Thrassis said phasing out screen-scraping is about much more than just the user experience in the Frollo app.
"Consumers care a lot about their privacy and security when sharing financial information, yet many consumers share their banking ID and password with third parties to get access to products and services," Mr Thrassis said.
"Most consumers probably don’t even know who gets access to their credentials nor think about what they could do with that type of unrestricted access.
"Phasing out screen-scraping is about much more than just the user experience in our app - it’s the start of a new era where consumers are in control of their own data, they can share it securely and their privacy is protected."
Mr Thrassis also noted the shift from screen scraping to relying solely on open banking for a number of products and providers is an important milestone for the Consumer Data Right (CDR).
Under the CDR, Aussie consumers have greater access to and control over their data providing greater clarity when comparing and switching between products and services.
The CDR also provides consumers control over what data is shared, for how long, with whom and for what purposes through consumer privacy and security protections.
"More than eight out of 10 new accounts linked in the Frollo app are already using open banking, and we expect this to only increase as we progressively phase out screen scraping for other banks until it’s only used for banks and products not covered under the CDR," Mr Thrassis said.
To find out if your bank or lender is an accredited service provider under the CDR and is set up to share data, see here.
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Rachel Horan
