"Account snooping": Schufa wants to evaluate account statements - massive criticism from consumer advocates

Consumers can allow financial providers to view their bank accounts.

Schufa now wants to use this to assess the solvency of consumers.

Wiesbaden - The

wants to

offer

future to have their

assessed based on their

transactions

.

With this

, the credit agency caused criticism from

advocates

and

.

Tests are currently running to determine whether the

people will

allow the data to be viewed and stored for twelve months.

Ole Schröder told the

: “There is currently no data flowing.” The test is supposed to last three months and will be carried out together with the cell phone company Telefónica / O2.

If potential new customers do not receive a

because of their low-rated solvency

, they can

grant

insight into their

details.

,

and

had previously

reported.

Schufa plans account evaluation: consumer advice center would proceed legally

Klaus Müller, board member of the

, threw the

"Account snooping" before.

"Such a deep data

analysis of

the

for scoring purposes allows conclusions to be drawn about the personality, economic status and even political orientations of the customers and ultimately leads to a completely screened

."

Schufa board member Schröder,

on the other hand, argued: "Sensitive data such as the payment of a doctor's bill are automatically filtered out and must not be processed." Only data relevant to credit rating and fraud prevention would be stored.

The

can with this voluntary

avoid additional account access by third parties.

The analysis only takes place once at the Schufa.

"The aim is that

can benefit

from current, positive account information for future transactions and

," said Schröder.

"This means that the data is more up-to-date, and we also meet the demands of

."

The fact that something like the Schufa is allowed to exist in Germany at all is the real scandal.

This is just a little bit on top.

https://t.co/wOa3EaAfBC

- Kathrin Weßling (@ohhellokathrina) November 26, 2020

Sit

account analysis from or abandonment of a

, it will stay with the classic

.

Even if the analysis based on the

not better, the classic credit rating is used - at least as long as the consumers

subsequently revoke

their consent to the

.

“From our point of view, it is

better

for

, the

collects the data in trust as a neutral entity, as a company that does business with it directly. "

Schufa: account insight legally possible due to payment services directive

Third-party

, such as financial start-ups,

have only been able

to gain insight into

since the introduction of the Second EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

However, this only applies if the customers give their consent.

The

had late December 2018 the Munich

bought Finapi GmbH.

According to

Schröder, the project is now common in Europe, and other credit agencies have also been using it "for some time".

The

is constantly in close coordination with the

.

"You were informed before the test, the

do not have to agree."

A spokesman for the

of

, however, was critical of the legal side.

The ministry will “take a close look” at the planned offer because it is about “particularly sensitive data”.

From the

received the

Criticism.

The

Tabea Rößner and Konstantin von Notz emphasized that

already has access to a lot of

data

, "who still cannot understand how and in what way this data is weighted for the personal score".

The deputy

Stephan Thomae finds it questionable that the Schufa

wants to analyze consumer

. “Citizens should pay with their data for lower prices and more opportunities in legal transactions.” If at some point a cell phone or rental contract would only be possible if the

their

viewed, the freedom of choice would in fact no longer exist.