The patent worrying Facebook could encourage you to pay attention to your list of friends

Companies like Google, Microsoft or Facebook deposited many patents, but not all are used.

And all we can wish is that the patent was recently issued to Facebook ("Authorization and Authentication based on the social network of the individual") never serve him.

Indeed, in one paragraph of the document, it says:

"When an individual applies for a loan, the lender reviews the credit scores of members of the social network of the individual who is connected to this individual via a licensed node. If the average credit score of its members reaches the minimum credit score, the lender continues to review the loan application. Otherwise, the request is rejected. "

Plus you have friends who have trouble repaying their loans, the more it would be risky for the lender to grant you, and vice versa.

In such a world, we could no longer add anyone on Facebook, is it not?

The good news is that as I mentioned earlier, it is quite possible that Facebook never use that patent or at least not the part that really risk angering its users (the patent also described a method can help filter spam and improve research).

However, the number of social networks is not alone in thinking to use data from social networks to assess risks that may incur a lender granting a loan.

For example, as explained in the Wall Street Journal, the California company Neo Finance uses the LinkedIn profile of the people to determine the employment status and quality of connections.

And worse, as explained by my colleague Axel, a company called Lenddo, which provides services for businesses, scans the contacts on Facebook, and if a deadbeat is detected there, the person is directly considered non-responsive. "With Lenddo, customers can use their social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo and Twitter to prove their identity and their creditworthiness," it says on the home page Lenddo.