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Comment by cm2187 | Hacker News Reader

Banks are so closely regulated that they are not really (in fact not at all) off limit for the government. Unless we are talking about a foreign website of a foreign bank, which would not be required to comply anyway.

Webmails, social medias or dating services are of a much greater interest to a nosy government.

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Oh, I believe you are mistaken. Governments are quite interested in your financial dealings, even with banks. The more they know, the less you can do without their direct knowledge.

I am not saying they are not interested. I am saying that they just need to ask the banks who will hand over everything no question asked. GCHQ does not need to intercept your connection to get your bank statement.

I bet they don't even need to ask..

Many countries still require warrants.

I think in France the taxman can check your bank account directly so it's a fair bet that the intelligence service have access. I have no reason to think things are different in the UK.

I wouldn't be surprised.

Have you ever read about the various French Intel services after the revolution? Talk about convoluted. They trusted no one or even each other.

I can't see how, without any context, you can say that "Webmails, social medias or dating services are of a much greater interest to a nosy government". As to regulations, if it is the law that backdoors are mandatory, then banks have no say in this.

Because they are services hosted outside the UK and which are not heavily regulated. Banks not only provide everything the gvt asks but actually have a duty to act as a law enforcement agency, i.e. watching their customers on the gvt behalf. Facebook or Gmail aren't required to do that.

You seem to imply that currently (retail? investment?) banks in UK are obligated to provide the government with information regarding customer's accounts. Can you provide a reference?

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