As if to say its privacy issues-related problems aren't enough, Facebook is trying to persuade banks to share your financial information with them so as to help improve banks customer service.
This course by Facebook is another way in which the social media giant wants to use and increase the stickiness of Messenger and Facebook.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook has been reaching out to banks over the years, persuading them to share detailed financial information about their customers, including card transactions and account balances.
Facebook has reportedly approached Citigroup, JPMorgan Chas, Well Fargo and U.S Bancorp.
The social media giant hopes to use Messenger to deliver results to banking customers per their request. Facebook sees the platform as a better way to curb fraud than the current method employed by banks.
"The idea is that messaging with a bank can be better than waiting on hold over the phone," Facebook said.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the company could see users financial information if only they choose to opt-in. However, non of the information will be used for advertising or any other purpose.
"We're not using this information beyond enabling these (customer service) types of experiences," Facebook said in a statement. "A critical part of these partnerships is keeping people's information safe and secure."
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Well, so far it seems Facebook's plan isn't going as expected. According to inside source, at least one big bank has retreated from talks, citing concerns over Facebooks privacy-related issues.
According to a JPMorgan spokesperson, the bank had to turn down some proposed partnership as a result of privacy stance, though the spokeperson didn't refer to Facebook in anyway.
MasterCard on its part, has, however, insisted that though it has a digital wallet on Facebook Messenger, it doesn't allow Facebok to see card information.