Pretty much all banks require that you present your ID to open a bank account, and yes, they make a copy of it. That being said, I 1000% agree with you that it is better for privacy to physically go to the bank to open a bank account than having to upload a copy of your ID from home.
Even if in both cases they copy your ID, there is still a difference. When you go to the bank, a real person is copying your ID. You can get their name and contact info, and make a note of when your ID was copied. Many businesses, including banks, are becoming more and more faceless.
What I find extremely frustrating is that now, more and more banks require that you scan your face in order to use their app. I just got a new phone and installed my bank’s app on it. Even though I have a username and password, and fingerprint ID, they would not let me set up my bank account unless I allow them to scan my face.
I went to the bank to complain about this, and they said I had no choice but to comply. We have no idea how this mechanism works, but I suspect that the bank keeps a record of every time I scan my face. I suspect that they don’t delete it.
I have another bank that is a neo bank, meaning they don’t exist physically. They need to scan my face every time I want to change a security setting. Not only that, they require that I record a video and repeat certain words that they show me. I have little doubt that they keep those recordings.
Suppose you scan your face with your bank’s app 10 times a year. You do it for 10 years. Do you really think that if your bank has to verify your identity in 2035, they won’t compare the latest recording of your face to the ones from the last 10 years? I don’t buy it either.
If my face scan and recording is only compared to the copy of my ID that the bank has, it would be one thing, but I suspect that is not the case.