Boursorama required tax password from its users, CNIL warns bank

We won’t take it back. Internet bank Boursorama received a legal notice from Cnil for asking some customers for a username and password from a state tax website, we learned this Thursday from willing sources confirming Next INpact, a specialist media outlet.

A French privacy police officer for his part confirmed the procedure but did not provide more details as no official notice was released. “We intend to comply with it,” Xavier Prien, the bank’s public relations manager, responded, pointing out that he received the official notice from Cnil in August.

Bursorama requested a password

In order to speed up the receipt of a consumer loan, Boursorama since June 2022 offers its customers who have not registered their income in it to directly provide it with a tax platform ID and password.

By obtaining the necessary information from the source, the bank saves time, especially on verification, since it does not need to verify the authenticity of the document. But that capability remained optional and took place in the secure environment of the website, Xavier Prien defended. “As far as we are concerned, we respect our obligations of protection, anonymity and security,” he said.

This legal notice comes in a context where every Internet user is constantly reminded that he should never give out his passwords to anyone, recalls the Next INpact website.