Ridiculous!!!!

Susoni

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Now, more than ever, it may pay to be wary of accepting just any old friend request online. Facebook recently filed a patent stating that a person can be denied a loan based on the credit history of contacts online.

Flowers float in the sea after they were thrown into the Mediterranean in honor of the migrants lost making the perilous journey across the sea, on April 28, 2015 in Nice, southeastern France
© AFP 2015/ VALERY HACHE
Facebook Matches Up Migrants With Smugglers – Reports
If you've been thinking of cleaning up your Facebook friends and getting rid of those random online connections, now may be the right time to do so, as it turns out your contacts could cost you that loan you need.

It's no secret that companies rake in profits by collecting and selling the personal data of their users, but it's hard not to raise your eyebrows at this one. The patent in question, ostensibly designed to prevent spam, and purchased by Facebook from Friendster along with a bundle of others for $40 million in 2010, allows a user's potential lenders to examine online friends' credit ratings to determine whether to grant a loan, the Independent reported. It includes the following text:

"In a fourth embodiment of the invention, the service provider is a lender. When an individual applies for a loan, the lender examines the credit ratings of members of the individual's social network who are connected to the individual through authorized nodes. If the average credit rating of these members is at least a minimum credit score, the lender continues to process the loan application. Otherwise, the loan application is rejected."

In other words, Facebook may be trying to live up to the saying: "Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are." Untrustworthy, irresponsible friends? Lenders may soon think you are too.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/world/20150903/1026517284.html#ixzz3l1it1gaQ