Facebook Wants Banks to Hand Over Your Financial Information

Facebook has been asking banks in the United States for their customers’ financial data, including account balances and transactions, according to a report.

The Wall Street Journal revealed that the social network has been asking major banks to “share detailed financial information about their customers, including card transactions and checking account balances, as part of an effort to offer new services to users.”

The banks asked by Facebook included JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and U.S. Bancorp, while one “large U.S. bank pulled away from talks due to privacy concerns.”

“Facebook has talked about a feature that would show its users their checking-account balances, the people said. It has also pitched fraud alerts,” reported the Wall Street Journal, which claimed, “Facebook has told banks that the additional customer information could be used to offer services that might entice users to spend more time on Messenger.”

Despite this, Facebook claimed in a statement that the data would not be used for advertisement targeting.

“We don’t use purchase data from banks or credit card companies for ads,” claimed Facebook spokesman Elisabeth Diana. “We also don’t have special relationships, partnerships, or contracts with banks or credit card companies to use their customers’ purchase data for ads.”