Will all Belarusian banks start tracking client locations? Alfa-Bank has already warned, it's impossible to refuse

"Starting May 26, when logging into INSNC (the bank's application — NN) from a phone or computer, a request for access to your geolocation will appear. Permission needs to be granted only once. If this is not done, from July 1, access to INSNC will be temporarily closed until geolocation is enabled," the bank announced.

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Illustrative photo

The post with this news on Alfa-Bank's official Telegram channel gathered hundreds of negative reactions and outraged comments — people don't understand why the bank needs to know the client's exact location.

"This is already a tracking app, not a banking one," Belarusians draw parallels.

What about other banks?

Alfa-Bank's client newsletter states that, according to legislation, starting July 1, 2026, all Belarusian banks will be obliged to adhere to new requirements for the collection, storage, and analysis of "digital device fingerprints."

What is a digital fingerprint? It is a set of parameters associated with the electronic device you use — this includes geolocation, as well as the model of your phone or computer, browser settings, operating system version, and so on. This mix of parameters will be compared with a so-called standard — a set of data characteristic specifically to you — every time you log into banking.

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Alfa-Bank information newsletter

So far, only Alfa-Bank has officially announced the innovations.

When asked by a Nasha Niva journalist about plans to introduce new banking rules, Belarusbank replied that "they do not have such information at the moment."

MTBank has not yet introduced similar restrictions (but geolocation is requested by the bank during registration anyway, so it is very difficult to register from abroad).

"If something like this happens in our bank [as with our colleagues at Alfa-Bank], additional information will be provided," replied an MTBank consultant.

Belinvestbank also continues to operate as before:

"At this moment, we have not received information about a requirement to enable geolocation from our bank. Such a requirement will not be implemented in the coming days. However, if a geolocation requirement does appear, the bank will most likely also notify clients in advance about it."

However, Belgazprombank has already confirmed that it will request geolocation from clients. True, they have not yet managed to send out information to clients. "However, blocking access to remote banking services (mobile application/internet banking) without permission to determine location is not planned," the bank assures.

Theoretically, a banking mobile application should request a person's geolocation only at the moment of logging into the system and only for security system purposes. However, in the Belarusian reality, where security forces virtually have access to any databases, this tool could turn into an instrument for additional surveillance of the population.

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