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by jackgavigan 3893 days ago
What if it becomes a prerequisite to grant your bank or FICO access to your Facebook posts, as part of the loan application?
9 comments

Or what if FB just decide to sell access to all posts (regardless of privacy setting on that post) to certain companies.

Could they do that? You'd probably have to read (and keep up with) the T&Cs.

Then you simply tell them that you don't have a Facebook account. If they find a private account with your name, you can tell them that it's not you.
If FB couldn't figure out who you are, they locked your account and required a photo of your driver's license or other state/national ID to verify identity.
It seems unlikely that this process will involve a human to intervene. Bots could do this easily, and could exploit things your friends share without you knowing. "I got super wasted with x last night" being posted or...

Or worse. They get access to those Facebook Messages?

I could see this starting as an opt-in for a little bump (of rate, score, etc.) in your favor, like how the car insurance companies give you a discount if you let them log your driving and it shows safe behavior (e.g. https://www.progressive.com/auto/snapshot/)
You can create user groups or G+ style circles on FB. For instance, I've got posts that only my friends see, most of them are also visible to my parents and very few are visible to acquaintances.

Add the representative of the bank to one of the limited visibility groups.

Not sure how that works when FB API is used.

Because _everyone_ has a facebook account? Bank/work somewhere else if the prerequisite is to have a facebook account that is accessible to people who are not your friends.

Alternatively, if you are genuinely worried about being able to do this, I would advise setting up a public profile separate from a personal one (cpt obvious).

I remember when it was a faux pas to put your real name on the internet - long live the days of having an alias that you can make a whole bunch of mistakes to a private group of friends without being publicly remembered for it.

Wasn't this a big thing years ago? Employers asking for your Facebook username and password during the interview process?

I seem to remember a lot of articles about that and then it just stopped.

It was followed up by a round of banning the practice: https://www.thesourcinginstitute.com/content/maryland-lawmak...

A rare outbreak of common sense in US labour law, although I suspect Facebook also lobbied for it - it's against their TOS to give your credentials to the interviewer.

A: "What Facebook profile?"
"I see. Lowest credit rating then."

Same as for us foreigners who don't have any credit rating records valid in US. Meaning you get the crappiest deals and worst apartments.

I'd rather just close my Facebook account.
You will be surprised how easy is to create second facebook profile.