Want a bank loan? Get yourself more Facebook friends -- but make sure they pay their bills on time.
Banks are beginning to look at user accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to determine if an applicant is loan-worthy, raising privacy concerns as well as questions over whether a person's online friends, likes and dislikes can actually measure their financial stability.
Everything a person does publicly on their social-networking accounts can be found by market researchers if the user's privacy settings allow it. Researchers are now looking at a person's online conversations, the groups they join, products they look at and even who their friends are to determine loan-worthiness.
"The presumption is that if your friends are responsible credit cardholders and pay their bills on time, you could be a good credit customer," reports WTOP News in Washington, DC.
Read on.
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