

Facebook files patent for credit worthiness based on your friend group - chollida1
http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/mo-friends-mo-problems-might-have-to-defriend-joey-with-the-jet-ski-bankruptcy

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keithwhor
This is toxic. The article is right, this should be illegal, and there should
be a supreme court ruling to make sure this can't happen.

The implications for social mobility are egregious. It's difficult enough for
those who come from lower-income backgrounds to succeed, meet the right
people, and flourish. Now we're looking at dictating the access to capital
somebody has based on not merit, not individual trustworthiness, not
potential... but the sum of their friends? This creates even more of a
positive feedback loop for the status quo at each and every level of income,
making it harder to move up or down.

Not okay with this. Zuck, or somebody that can, needs to squash this.

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hadeharian
On the other hand, if I friend the right billionaires, perhaps I will be
autoapproved? I can't say I would mind this.

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jasode
We could foresee some awkward conversations...

 _" Hey John, don't take it personally but I had to unfriend you because
you've been behind on a few car payments and at the moment, I'm trying to
qualify for a mortgage."_

or

 _" Sorry, I couldn't accept your friend request because you've been
unemployed since graduation and still live with your mom."_

(Profiling via "guilty by association".)

If Facebook turns users' friendship data into weapons against them, we could
end up with people creating _two_ sets of friends: 1) the "unofficial" friends
hidden from Facebook and 2) the "official" friends that won't hurt FICO credit
scores.

If that happened businesses would have to go to the cell phone companies to
more accurately analyze friendship nodes (wireless phone #s). It's harder to
hide "real" friends on the cell network since people only use one phone.

Facebook's idea can be extended beyond credit-worthiness to "moral character
assessment". If a friend has a DUI charge, you unfriend them (or never accept
a friend request) because you don't want to hurt your chances when applying
for an FBI or nanny job.

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Infernal
Here's the language from the patent causing all the uproar:

 _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._

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joshmn
I think the best part of this is that you might be able to sell yourself as a
friend if you have high credit.

Of course assuming this is a two-way street, your credit would also be
impacted...

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_rpd
Hasn't this been going on for years?

E.g.,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7028744](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7028744)

