[governance] Surfing for Details German Agency to Mine Facebook to Assess Creditworthiness

[Riaz K Tayob]

06/07/2012


    Surfing for Details German Agency to Mine Facebook to Assess
    Creditworthiness

A

A leading German credit agency wants to mine Facebook for information on 
people's creditworthiness.

*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.*

Info <http://www.spiegel.de/artikel/a-749184.html>

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.

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.

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."

A credit agency spokesman confirmed to SPIEGEL ONLINE that a project 
called "SCHUFALab at 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.

*'Plans Go Too Far'*

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."

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."

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."

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.

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.

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.

/With reporting by Veit Medick and Severin Weiland/

/mbw -- with wires 
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-credit-agency-plans-to-analyze-individual-facebook-pages-a-837539.html#ref=rss
/

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