【Digital Wallet】PayMe "Your PayMe Friends" section removed on 4.13 Privacy Commissioner: Review completed, welcoming HSBC's approach

HSBC Hong Kong (00005)
The HSBC PayMe team has notified customers that starting April 13, 2026, to enhance the PayMe user experience, the social timeline feature at the bottom of the homepage (the “Your PayMe Friends” section) will be removed. Customers can still view their transaction history in the “My Account” section as usual.

An HSBC spokesperson responded to our inquiry, stating that the removal of the “Your PayMe Friends” dynamic feature on the app interface will take place on April 13, 2026. This update is an important step in evolving PayMe from a social payment app into a comprehensive mobile e-wallet, aiming to improve the app interface and create a smoother, more secure payment experience.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) replied to our inquiry on Thursday (12th), indicating that they had previously conducted a compliance review of PayMe. During this review, the PCPD advised HSBC to ensure the protection of users’ personal data privacy. The PCPD welcomed HSBC’s decision to remove the social timeline feature (“Your PayMe Friends” section) from the homepage and to notify PayMe users of this change via email. The review process has now been completed.

Privacy Commissioner’s Office Reported Investigating PayMe in January

In early January, local media reported that the PCPD was investigating HSBC PayMe, mainly concerning the risk that some early users’ personal data had been publicly exposed due to default settings. The PCPD responded at the time that the compliance review would “investigate all related issues, including vulnerabilities of old users and the necessity of in-app prompts.” HSBC stated that since 2019, all new PayMe users’ privacy settings have been set to “private” by default. Unless users change their settings, their transaction records will not be visible.

The PCPD’s reply in early January indicated that preliminary data showed that users who registered for the mobile app before 2019, and did not change the privacy settings for “Who can see your payment transactions?” and “Who can see transactions where others pay you?” from “All friends” to “Private,” might have had their transaction records visible to other users. The PCPD recommended that service providers of mobile apps should, based on the “default privacy mode” principle, enable the highest level of privacy protection in default settings. They should also require users to make deliberate and informed choices when lowering privacy levels, such as allowing others to view their personal data. Additionally, service providers should take measures to ensure users are aware of their rights and options to change privacy settings.

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