HEI$T BIDDER
Facebook wants to be your banking friend
This status update won’t get many “likes.”
Facebook – on the heels of a scandal that involved its users’ personal information being sold – now wants to get a hold of their financial info, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The social media titan has asked major U.S. banks like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup to share details about their clients to boost its position as a site where users buy and sell items and services, and not just post baby photos, according to the Journal.
Facebook denied that it’s asking for transaction data in a statement Monday, but admitted it’s looking into linking users’ financial transactions to updates that could be received in its messaging service.
“A recent WSJ story implies incorrectly that we are actively asking financial services companies for financial transaction data — this is not true,” Facebook said in statement. “Like many online companies with commerce business, we partner with banks and credit card companies to offer services like customer chat or account management.
“Account linking enables people to receive real-time updates in Facebook Messenger where people can keep track of their transaction data like account balances, receipts and shipping updates.”
At least one major bank says it’s not entertaining sharing data with the social media site.
“Maintaining the privacy of customer data is of paramount importance to Wells Fargo,” Hilary O’Byrne, a rep for that bank told the Daily News. “We are not actively engaged in data-sharing conversations with Facebook.”
On Facebook’s wish list: your credit card transactions and checking account balances, according to the Journal.
Angry reaction. Unfollow. Block.
Sources familiar with the request told the Journal that Facebook is looking into what it could offer banking customers on Facebook Messenger, the site’s private messaging app, including sending out fraud alerts and showing users the balance in their checking accounts.
Unsurprisingly, some of the banks are wary, sources told the Journal. Facebook came under fire in March when it was revealed that the personal data of more than 87 million users was sold to Cambridge Analytica, a datamining political consulting firm hired by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into Facebook on March 26 regarding the use of its data by the firm.
Those familiar with Facebook’s talks with banks told the Journal that platforms such as Google and Amazon have also asked financial institutions to share data for potential banking services to be offered on Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
Trish Wexler, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase, told The News, “We aren’t sharing such off-platform transaction data with Facebook, and have had to walk away from some opportunities as a result.”
Wexler declined to elaborate on what kind of opportunities JPMorgan passed on, and with which platform.
One of the banks Facebook reached out to regarding client financial data has already backed out of the discussion, citing privacy concerns, according to the Journal.
The social media company told the banks that the info could potentially be used to offer services that would make them spend more time on Messenger, which currently has about 1.3 billion monthly active users, reports the newspaper.
Facebook added in its statement that, “The idea is that messaging with a bank can be better than waiting on hold over the hone – and it’s completely opt-in. We’re not using this information beyond enabling these types of experiences – not for advertising or anything else.”