Facebook friends could kill your chances of securing credit

YOU are the sum of your Facebook friends — and those slackers from high school could hold you back from getting a bank loan. It’s time for a cull.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 22: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a keynote address during the Facebook f8 conference on September 22, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the conference introducing a Timeline feature to the popular social network. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

THEY say a person’s character is the sum of the five people they spend the most time with.

Now it seems that a loan applicant’s financial standing can be determined by their social media circle — a development that could spark a cyberstalking frenzy.

Facebook has just secured approval for a patent that could allow lenders to assess loan eligibility by trawling through the applicant’s friends and analysing their credit scores, CNN Money reports.

It means one’s social network could determine whether a home or car loan is approved — potentially good news for social climbers, but for the average Joe? No so much.

“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,” the patent states.

It remains to be seen how accurate such a measure would be; how closely do cashed-up elites guard their Facebook friend list? And how many successful people of humble beginnings have stayed in contact with their high school friends on social media?

Beware of social media climbers — they could damage more than your reputation.

Also unclear is whether the social media giant will actually make use of the technology, which was acquired in 2012 along with spam filtering and search enhancing inventions.

Nevertheless, the development has sparked concern among consumer and privacy advocates alike, with Consumer Action Law Centre spokesman Jonathan Brown calling it “alarming”.

“You should be judged on your own merits when applying for finance,” Mr Brown told Fairfax Media.

“We should be entitled to a basic level of privacy on social networks ... It’s not fair to be judged off the basis of your friends and family when accessing credit and we’d be worried about the impacts on people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.”

Australian Privacy Foundation vice-chair Kat Lane also slammed the “disgusting” concept.

Facebook is expanding into the electronic payment market, trialling a “buy and sell” function in Sydney and Auckland and allowing United States users to send cash to their friends.

The controversial patent was uncovered by Mikhail Avady, founder of SmartUp, a United States legal technology company in Atlanta.

Facebook declined a CNN request for comment.