“Like any large company, it’s important that we vet and recognize automated traffic coming into our website,” said Paul LaRusso, executive director of digital platforms at JPMorgan. “Secure APIs will let our customers control what information they share while still enjoying the apps that help them make good financial decisions.”
Consumer advocates laud apps that help people save money, manage budgets and avoid unfair fees. But those focused on privacy still tend to side with the banks, worried that apps might abuse or lose people’s most valuable data.
“The end of screen scraping is really important,” said Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center, which advocates for privacy and other consumer protections. “Any entity that is using screen scraping should be talking to the big financial institutions and coming up with a more secure way, because it’s increasingly untenable to not have an API.”
This article provided by Bloomberg News.