Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Has Asked Large US Banks To Share Detailed Financial Information About Customers as it Seeks To Boost User Engagement [Update] (wsj.com)
Facebook wants your financial data. The social media giant has asked large U.S. banks to share detailed financial information about their customers, including card transactions and checking account balances, as part of an effort to offer new services to users, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. From the report: Facebook increasingly wants to be a platform where people buy and sell goods and services, besides connecting with friends. The company over the past year asked JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp USB to discuss potential offerings it could host for bank customers on Facebook Messenger, said people familiar with the matter. Facebook has talked about a feature that would show its users their checking-account balances, the people said. It has also pitched fraud alerts, some of the people said. Data privacy is a sticking point in the banks' conversations with Facebook, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks are taking place as Facebook faces several investigations over its ties to political analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, which accessed data on as many 87 million Facebook users without their consent. Update: Shares of Facebook surged nearly 3% following the report. A paywall free, alternative source of this story.
Update 2 (18:10 GMT): Talking to TechCrunch, Facebook has, in part, denied WSJ's report. TechCrunch: Facebook spokesperson Elisabeth Diana tells TechCrunch it's not asking for credit card transaction data from banks and it's not interested in building a dedicated banking feature where you could interact with your accounts. It also says its work with banks isn't to gather data to power ad targeting, or even personalize content such as what Marketplace products you see based on what you buy elsewhere.
Update 2 (18:10 GMT): Talking to TechCrunch, Facebook has, in part, denied WSJ's report. TechCrunch: Facebook spokesperson Elisabeth Diana tells TechCrunch it's not asking for credit card transaction data from banks and it's not interested in building a dedicated banking feature where you could interact with your accounts. It also says its work with banks isn't to gather data to power ad targeting, or even personalize content such as what Marketplace products you see based on what you buy elsewhere.
This makes me even happier that I ditched Facebook 9 months ago never to return. There is no way those fuckers are going to get their hands on my financial data. Fuck Zuckerberg and fuck Facebook!
Several years ago, I discovered that Facebook cookies were being set on my PC whenever I logged-in to my accounts at the credit unions (2) and bank (1) where I have accounts. I was surprised since I do not have a Facebook account and do not want one.
I then found that practice was contrary to the published privacy policies of all three financial institutions. I sent postal letters to all three. Two of them changed their Web site such that no Facebook cookies were being set.
After a repeated letter to the third institution resulted in no correction in 6 months, I wrote to the institution's federal regulatory agency requesting an enforcement action to make the institution comply with their own privacy policy. Now, none of the three Web sites set Facebook cookies.
Real benefit for FB -- they will be able to reliably tie accounts to a real identity. Fecebook will off-load their ID verification onto banks by tying accounts to a bank account/routing number and verifying via two ACH deposits/withdrawls of random quantity (same as PayPal does). This is of course not a benefit for their customers, but it benefits Zuck&Co in being able to track and throw ads at real people more reliably.
Facebook probably never dared dreaming about getting data from banks until the EU started the madness:
"EU lawmakers hope that the introduction of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) will give non-banking firms the chance to compete with banks in the payments business and give consumers more choice over financial products and services."