Is this is dating app or a financial company?FCA rules do not mandate a selfie or photograph of a customer is taken for ID purposes. Professional companies use the electoral register and nominated account, or a copy of a passport. Prosper not only want a copy of a passport but a photograph of a user. An unknown third party users have no contract with stores this data.It is false to claim this is required for regulatory compliance. It is not. It is a self-imposed requirement which is not legally required.I promptly deleted the app. I am not signing up to a dating site or sending my photograph to a third party.Unacceptable verification system. Intrusive verification should be made clear at the onset.What happens when there is a data leak? Do images appear on paedo lists? No thanks.I then received a rude email addressing me by my first name as opposed to the UK default of Title Surname.We are not on first name terms, not friends.Any decent software has a field: "Address as" where people chose how to be addressed.Presumptuous nonsense.Hargreaves Langsdown, ii.co.uk etc do not ask for selfies and address people with respect, by default (Title, Surname). They are competent organisations. Prosper need to learn!If the target is UK customers, the default manner to address a client is not by first name.Cybernews .com reported:Millions of customers of large businesses have been left vulnerable to identity theft, thanks to a security flaw that exposes their personal data to illicit download: Service providers using Onfido, an identification verification (IDV) service, let a major flaw in their security go unchecked.Guess who Prosper use.===Response to Prosper.Just because Trading212 does the same it does not make your requirements acceptable or correct. The well-established brands such as ii.co.uk and Hargreaves do not. Your stance loses potential customers, unlike ii.co.uk and Hargreaves et al.Your supplier appears to have had security issues and data breaches. Why should they be trusted?As for First name, again Hargreaves and ii.co.uk use Title Surname. First name is not a human touch or friendly. There is no evidence it is. It is simply over-familiar, rude and presumptuous. It is clearly importing American nonsense . It is laziness to fail to seek permission or having a field for a user to select how to be addressed – basic software design.The major countries in the world also object to first name use by unknown people and in client relationships, such as India, China and Japan. It is culturally inappropriate to call an elder person by their first name in these countries and considered rude. If you cannot understand culture, how will you understand finance?Prosper should employ staff who can communicate in British English. "We appreciate it might not work for all, and does not work for you." is American nonsense. Words to not work. Did you mean I do not like it?Learn the language of country you operate in!--First name terms: What evidence exists?1. Anecdotal and cultural resistance (UK)British cultural norms have historically favoured formality with strangers, especially in customer service, healthcare, and official settings.Complaints about over-familiarity in phone calls, emails, and letters have been raised for years.The Financial Times, BBC, and other UK outlets have run columns and features critical of this shift, highlighting a widespread discomfort with unsolicited first-name use.2. No strong consumer polling supports itThere’s no major UK survey proving people generally prefer being addressed by first name by businesses or strangers.Some corporate call centres claim people respond more warmly to first names — but this is typically based on internal marketing theory, not independent public research.3. Professional standards still favour formalityThe NHS, courts, armed forces, universities, and police often stick to using title and surname, especially at first contact.This suggests that in contexts where respect, trust, and clarity matter, formality is still the default.So why is first-name usage pushed?It’s largely a corporate or marketing decision — based on:American-style scripts where casual tone = friendly brand imageThe belief it builds “rapport” (even if it's artificial)A cost-cutting mindset: treating people like data entries, not individualsCompanies often assume this approach works because few people complain directly, even if they’re uncomfortable.
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Prosper was founded to bring More for You by maximising our members’ potential wealth. We provide pensions, investments (both public and private) and savings accounts that have clear charges.
And we keep them low.
With Prosper’s flexible Stocks and Shares ISA, you get:
No platform or transfer fees
Refunded fund fees on over 30 top ETFs (BlackRock, Vanguard and more)
Real human support when you need it
Our pensions (Self Invested Pension Plans) are also free to open and free to fund.
We charge no platform or transfer fees to move your existing pensions or ISAs to Prosper.
We have market beating cash savings rates on fixed, easy access and notice accounts and again, we take the absolute least possible interest for ourselves that we can so that we can pass on as much value to you as possible.
Recently we have brought our members private markets funds and we intend to much more in the app to bring private markets to our sophisticated investors with a simple interface.
Our members benefit from zero fee access on 30 index funds from the world's leading asset managers, zero platform fees and zero transaction fees. In the future, we will charge members a fair platform fee and low, fair and transparent fees for any other investment products we think represent great value.
Prosper founder and CEO Nick Perrett and Chairman Ricky Knox have previously worked together building Tandem Bank. The company is backed by the founders of Monzo, Capital One and Admiral and other leaders in financial services.
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