Facebook wants to access the banking data of its users

The company, accused of leaking data with a political purpose, negotiates with the large US entities to access the balance of the account and card transactions of users

Facebook has asked major US banks to share detailed financial information about their customers, including data on credit card transactions and current account balances, justifying their request in the social network's efforts to offer new services to their users, according to reveals the newspaper 'The Wall Street Journal' citing knowledgeable sources.

The revelation once again puts the focus on the problem of users 'personal data, following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, accused of collecting data from Facebook users and using it for political purposes without the users' consent, a controversy over that the Zuckerberg was charged by filtration and had to testify before the United States Senate .

In this regard, the newspaper notes that in the last year the social networking giant contacted entities such as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and US Bancorp to discuss potential offers for customers of the entities available through Facebook Messenger, although one of the large banks contacted would have withdrawn from the talks due to privacy concerns. «Facebook has spoken about a function that would allow users to consult the balance of their accounts», the consulted sources told the newspaper.

As part of the proposed agreements, Facebook asked the entities for information on where their users are buying, regardless of the purchases made using Facebook Messenger, the newspaper adds. Messenger has 1.3 billion active users per month, according to Facebook's operations director, Sheryl Sandberg, during the presentation of the accounts for the second quarter.

Google and Amazon also want the data

The social network would have indicated to the entities that this information about the clients could be used to offer services that would lead them to spend more time using Messenger and would have assured that they would not use the data for advertising purposes or to share them with third parties.

"We do not use purchasing data from banks or credit card companies for advertising," said social network spokeswoman Elisabeth Diana, adding that Facebook "has no special relationships, no partnerships or contracts with banks or credit card companies. to use the data of its clients for advertising purposes ».

"Like many other companies, we routinely talk with financial institutions about how we can improve people's business experiences," Diana added, stressing that an essential part of these efforts is to keep people's information secure.

According to sources consulted by the newspaper, other technology companies such as Alphabet or Amazon.com would have asked the bank to share this kind of data if they decided to collaborate with them in order to offer basic banking services through applications such as Google Assistant and Alexa.