The banking app I am forced to use because without it I cannot access internet banking nor make online payments has stopped working, declaring "no network". Why should that be when everything else is fine?

The answer, I initially thought, was that I use a private VPN but that isn't new so my initial thought that the bank was using geolocation to make sure I was in the correct country was probably wrong.

I also use a comprehensive ad blocker that also blocks trackers. But that's not new, either. So, I looked at the logs and found out that that blocker is intercepting Google Analytics and the App appears to be stalling, with a message that is false because the network is demonstrably working, because I protect the privacy and security by blocking such technology.

Out of the box, Google Analytics has been deemed illegal in several European states and investigations continue in most others plus the EU itself. But such bans are jurisdiction specific and, if companies modify the product, it might (but only might) become legal under GDPR and domestic laws.

But we, as users, outside those jurisdictions are not protected and in any case there is no way we could know if the modifications have been made.

Prudent users simply block it at firewall level, so it never reaches a PC or device.

By making the acceptance of Google Analytics a condition of accessing a financial app, the app provider is forcing customers to give up their privacy and security.

Regulators are supposed to be protecting the interests of customers.

Regulators should ban the use of Google Analytics and similar products in apps and websites. But in particular, where the App is required to authorise web access to online banking and for making transfers and other activity conducted on the 'web, including contacting the bank, there is an imperative to require all such technologies, and any tech that scans a device for information, be removed from financial apps, immediately.