The Wall Street Journal says that Facebook has asked large U.S. banks to share financial information about their customers as it seeks to offer new services to users. Asking detailed information means information about their customers including card transactions and checking account balances so to offer new services to the users.
Marking itself as a connecting platform Facebook now wants to build further where people can buy and sell goods and services besides its usual usage. Facebook has come with plans and has talked to JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and U.S. Bancorp about a feature that would show its users their account balances while it would also pitch fraud alerts.
This kind of features has been in making after Facebook has faced several criticisms over its ties to political analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.
We don’t use purchase data from banks or credit card companies for ads. -Elisabeth Diana, spokeswoman
The tech giant asserted that it would not use the bank data for ad-targeting purposes or share it with third parties.
It is now on the banks to decide whether they would rely upon and provide their information to a third-party platform like Facebook. Banks are hesitant enough to hand too much control, they prefer to keep customers on their own websites and apps.
