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<div id="spShortDate" itemprop="datePublished"
content="2012-06-07T14:03:02+0200">
06/07/2012 </div>
<h2 itemprop="headline"> <span class="spArticleTopicLine">Surfing
for Details </span><span class="spArticleHeadLine">German
Agency to Mine Facebook to Assess Creditworthiness</span></h2>
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522px">A
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<p>A leading German credit agency wants to mine Facebook for
information on people's creditworthiness.</p>
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<p id="spIntroTeaser" itemprop="description"><strong>A leading
German credit agency plans to mine Facebook and other social
networking sites in search of information that could have a
bearing on a person's creditworthiness, according to media
reports. But several leading politicians have criticized the
plan.</strong></p>
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<p>Germany's largest credit agency plans to use information it
gathers online, including from individual Facebook pages, in its
analysis of an individual's creditworthiness.</p>
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The credit agency, SCHUFA, plans to use Facebook to study a
person's relationships in determining how that might affect their
ability to pay their bills, the German broadcaster NDR reported
Thursday, citing confidential internal documents.
<p>SCHUFA also plans to analyze information about people from
other sites like the professional networks Xing and LinkedIn,
Twitter, a personal search engine called Yasni, and Google
Street View, NDR reported. The credit agency, according to NDR,
plans to use "crawling techniques," like those used by Google,
with the goal of "identifying and assessing the prospects and
threats."</p>
<p>A credit agency spokesman confirmed to SPIEGEL ONLINE that a
project called "SCHUFALab@HPI" exists, and added that
"everything is happening within the legal frameworks in
Germany." SCHUFA has commissioned the privately-funded
information technology college, Hasso Plattner Institute, at the
University of Potsdam, to develop a proposal for the project.</p>
<p>
<b>'Plans Go Too Far'</b>
</p>
<p>News of the credit agency's plans drew quick condemnation from
the German Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger,
of the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP). "It cannot be
that Facebook friends and preferences lead to one, for example,
not being able to get a cell phone contract,"
Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "SCHUFA and
other credit agencies should disclose their full intentions of
using Facebook data to check creditworthiness." </p>
<p>She said that it is already controversial what data is used in
determining someone's credit report and called for the process
to be "finally fully transparent."</p>
<p>Rainer Brüderle, FDP floor leader in German parliament, told
SPIEGEL ONLINE that SCHUFA should refrain from carrying out its
project. "SCHUFA's plans go too far," he said. "Social networks,
like a circle of friends, are part of a person's private life,
and should therefore not be tapped."</p>
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There are approximately 20 million Facebook users in Germany, and
SCHUFA has collected data on more than 66 million consumers. Until
now, most of the information for the credit agency has come from
partners like banks, insurances agencies, and businesses. The
credit reports are used frequently when someone in Germany applies
for loans, rents an apartment or completes a cell phone contract.
<p>According to NDR's report on the confidential documents, the
online texts could be analyzed "to determine the current
opinions of a person," and researchers could use Facebook, Xing
or Twitter profile information to find the "addresses, and
especially changed addresses" of other users.</p>
<p>The news of SCHUFA's new plan also was criticized by Germany's
active data protection community. "Should SCHUFA really utilize
the information, it would be an entirely new dimension," Thilo
Weichert, the data protection representative for the state of
Schleswig-Holstein told NDR.</p>
<p>
<i>With reporting by Veit Medick and Severin Weiland</i>
</p>
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<p><i>mbw -- with wires
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-credit-agency-plans-to-analyze-individual-facebook-pages-a-837539.html#ref=rss">http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-credit-agency-plans-to-analyze-individual-facebook-pages-a-837539.html#ref=rss</a><br>
</i></p>
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