#facething

Facebook denies claims it's after users' financial data after report reveals the firm has been asking US banks to share information, including account balances and card transactions ! ~ Andrew Cheetham

'Facebook is weighing partnerships with U.S. banks to offer services on Messenger. The social media giant has approached JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp in the past year about sharing customers' financial data, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources close to the situation. Data would reportedly include things like users' card transactions and checking account balances. However, Facebook has since denied that it's interested in obtaining consumers' financial data. Instead, it hopes enhance its payment and commerce features within Messenger. Since the report was published, Facebook had already been criticized for the rumored bank partnerships, in large part due to its poor track record of protecting user data.

A recent Wall Street Journal story implies incorrectly that we are actively asking financial services companies for financial transaction data - this is not true,' Facebook spokeswoman Elisabeth Diana told TechCrunch. 'Like many online companies with commerce businesses, we partner with banks and credit card companies to offer services like customer chat or account management. 'Account linking enables people to receive real-time updates in Facebook Messenger where people can keep track of their transaction data like account balances, receipts and shipping updates. 'We're not using this information beyond enabling these types of experiences - not for advertising or anything else,' she added.'