Log In Just when you thought Facebook couldn't get any worse with how it handles your information... Their newest patent allows them to share your friend list to creditors so they can determine if you hang around people with bad credit scores or not. So in other words, if your sibling went through a nasty divorce and their spouse hosed their credit, and you happen to be Facebook friends with them, then that therefore will potentially affect your ability to get a loan, as well as your interest rates. Talk about some shady shit. Heaven forbid if your best friend from high school got nailed with some unexpected medical bills while they were in between jobs and had to declare bankruptcy, or got under water with some predatory home loan they mistakenly signed years ago, now *you* can get penalized along with them, and get dinged with even higher interest rates. I can't even begin to imagine how creditors are even allowed to pull crap like this. But of course, nobody will say or do anything about it, and it will go on unchallenged...
It's not really that big of a deal. Companies create insane patents like these all the time, and that doesn't always mean they're going to use them. Plus, it's sometimes a competitive move to block another, potentially worse company from doing the same. If you care about it that much, then wait until Facebook actually implements the patent, which it would have to give users notice on, and then quit social media. Until the patent actually gets put into use, it means absolutely nothing, and Facebook might never implement it. Big deal.
When I learned that employers had started taking a look at the Facebook pages of the people who'd applied for jobs, I decided to leave Facebook and haven't missed much. There comes a time when one must such decisions and if being on FB will make it harder for someone to get a loan then leave FB they should.
It is pretty outrageous and whilst it is true that it can't harm anyone whilst it isn't being used, it's this kind of apathy which means these things go unchallenged.
Ugh, not cool. While I don't think it's going to be a huge deciding factor, I do think it's a breach of privacy really. I can see how they might want to link me having a lot of low-credit friends, for example, with me being similar....but that's simply not the case sometimes.
Sometimes it's kind of eerie to think what Facebook and Google can actually do to your personal information. Like Google for example, it keeps record of your online activity (thru cookies), it's like a digital stalker or something.
Thanks for sharing this information with us @ohiotom76! I was wondering why the increasing number of online (and offline) deals requesting you to have a Facebook account as a "validating" element. Absurd from my standpoint because Facebook is not an authority instance to validate anything, in fact they don't even validate members at all since there are countless fake account inside it. But this is the trick, the Sucker-berg keeps making money by selling his members content, photos, and now even their privacy. So that whenever he can, he will be selling everybody's souls to Satan.
I ditched Facebook, but not because of privacy concerns. We're headed toward a society where privacy means absolutely nothing, regardless of what the minority thinks about that. It's not a big deal if you could trust companies and governments, but we all know that that's not something that happens. We shouldn't trust all of these entities with this information. There are steps you can take to remain private, but really you're not as private as you think, even being off the grid.
But I was also wondering if Facebook is really allowing this? Or is it just because some of our profiles are set on "Public"? So is it safe to say that it is us who are allowing anyone to have access to our personal information? After all, we have the option not to join Facebook or just delete our account anytime. Just an opinion though.
We all know these places are shady.. it's up to us what we share and what we "absolutely have to" be a part of. If you need to be a part of Facebook knowing your information is no longer your own, then you can't be surprised when things like this happen. You didn't sign up for specifics like this, no, but you knew you were signing over your information. If you didn't, you shouldn't be online at all lol.
