The news this week that really caught my attention was about social media being used to determine your credit worthiness. MSN Money gives examples of 2 lending companies, though there are others, that are using the credit histories of your Facebook friends to judge just how likely you are to pay your debts on time.
Lenddo, their first example, scans your Facebook friends for payment and default data. This is just one of the thousands of 'points' lenders are now using. Another company, Kreditech, out of Germany, uses up to 8,000 data 'points' when assessing a loan application. They not only use Facebook data but also eBay and Amazon accounts as well. They also look at the amount of time people spend reading over the company's on-line application and give negative assessments to those that fill out the form in all-caps or no caps.
Since they have access to information on people that most of us don't, perhaps the wave of the future will include a credit report attachment whenever you send a friend request to someone of Facebook. But for now, maybe it's a good idea to brush up on your keyboard skills.
