Controversy over PNB Aagman app, Is PNB trying to track its Staff?

Punjab National Bank – one of the largest public sector banks in India is involved in another controversy. The issue of new transfer policy has just got over and a new controversy has started. Recently, PNB Bank has announced two new features for its employees – QR code based Feedback system and PNB Aagman app for marking attendance. In this article, we will talk about PNB Aagman app.

The PNB Bank has launched this new app for marking attendance of employees via location tracking. This means that employee can mark attendance only if they are at their office location. For this purpose, the app user will have to share his/her location with the app. The mobile app is available in both android and iOS versions. PNB employees can download the app and mark attendance via this app. Everything seems to be super cool and hi-tech but the employees are not happy with it. Employees and Bank Associations have taken to social media to express their anger and grief regarding the app. But Why? When the app is so hi-tech, then what’s the issue? Let’s understand it.

As you can see from the above tweets, the users are complaining that the app violates their privacy. We Bankers Association says that Punjab National Bank already has a process of marking biometric attendance via Desktop then why the bank is implementing attendance via app. The Association has accused the bank of live tracking its employees. Employees fear that the app might be used for surveillance of employees.

The Bank Officers’ Association has raised serious concerns about two new systems introduced by PNB — the AAGMAN App for marking attendance and the QR code-based customer feedback method. The association said that these new systems violate officers’ privacy and create unnecessary stress at the workplace.

The app is location-based, which means it tracks where the officer is. It also seeks access to officers’ personal data, such as their contact list, phone calls, and other private information. The association pointed out that biometric attendance is already in place in the bank, which serves the same purpose. Therefore, introducing another system for attendance seems unnecessary and looks like an attempt to control the private lives of officers.

Users complain various issues with the app

1. The mobile app is not available on the Google Play Store, which is the official app store for Android. When an app is uploaded on the Google Play Store, Google checks the app and the app goes live only if it as per Google’s policies. In this case, the PNB Aagman app is not available on the Google Play Store means there might be some issue with the app.

2. The app does not seem to be working properly. When users downloaded the app for testing, the app kept on showing the message – Loading, and finally, the app crashed. This means the app has some developmental issues.

3. The app asks for various permissions, such as permissions to access phone calls, which completely violates the privacy of users. Such permissions are not needed for an attendance app. These permissions are needed to manage phone calls and contacts. Recently, Google and the Government of India have asked Citizens not to provide any permission that is irrelevant to the working of any app. This means that a camera app should not ask for phone permission, a calendar app should not ask for camera permission, and so on. So in this case, an attendance app should not ask for phone call permissions. The app is based on marking biometric via location tracking and so it should ask for location permissions only.

4. Users say that the bank has already implemented biometric attendance in desktops and the system is working flawlessly. When one system of attendance marking is working properly then why bank is spending money on mobile apps? Instead, this money should be utilised in the betterment of the existing system. The development and maintenance of mobile apps require a lot of funds and these could have been used to make the existing biometric system better.

Meanwhile, PNB Management is working hard to revamp the bank and improve customer service. What happens next – let’s see – whether the app will be implemented or not. What are your thoughts? Tell us in the comment section below.