21st Century Wire says…
“I am done with the monster of “We,” the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame.” – Ayn Rand
Tech startups are to determine future lending practices based on the backgrounds of you and your friends on Facebook, as well as other social media outlets.
This is what neo-feudalism looks like, through policy restrictions and regulatory corporate gatekeeping, we’ll be submerged into a dystopian hive existence, subject to the lifestyle of others.
Essentially, you’ll be penalized for having a friend with a bad credit score or an acquaintance who was late on a loan, subsequently, leading to the rejection of your loan. This is guilt by association, moving us further into a corporate consolidated culture, seeking to cut the individual out of the future pie.
The implications of such an intrusive system are literally staggering, not only is this a violation of individual liberty and intrusion on privacy, it’s an accelerated march into serfdom.
The data farming and elitist power grabbing doesn’t end there.
A German company called Kreditech claims to assess up to 8,000 data points when looking at loan applications. Kreditech’s own mission statement seems born out of the United Nations cult-vision of sustainability, “Agenda 21“:
“Faster, better, more sustainable credit decisions.”
Continuing the mission statement, we see the meta-data algorithms they use to operate:
“Google uses big data to predict what you are searching for. Amazon uses big data to predict what you are interested in. We use that same data and complex algorithms to predict how creditworthy you are based on up to 8000 datapoints.”
The website also goes on to say what Kreditech looks for:
” Kreditech works liks a big mosaic – Any online data that can be found about an individual will be used for fraud detection, identification, scoring.”
In addition, creditworthiness by Kreditech, is determined by
the location of where you claim to live and work.
This is new kind of data mining is a disturbing trend, one which has been echoed across government agencies and corporate interests throughout the world in recent years.
Below you’ll see a CNN article that seems almost overjoyed with this new form of digital financing and control…
CNN Money
Facebook friends could change your credit score
Katie Lobosco
Choose your Facebook friends wisely; they could help you get approved — or rejected– for a loan
A handful of tech startups are using social data to determine the risk of lending to people who have a difficult time accessing credit. Traditional lenders rely heavily on credit scores like FICO, which look at payments history. They typically steer clear of the millions of people who don’t have credit scores.
But some financial lending companies have found that social connections can be a good indicator of a person’s creditworthiness.
One such company, Lenddo, determines if you’re friends on Facebook (FB) with someone who was late paying back a loan to Lenddo. If so, that’s bad news for you. It’s even worse news if the delinquent friend is someone you frequently interact with.
“It turns out humans are really good at knowing who is trustworthy and reliable in their community,” said Jeff Stewart, a co-founder and CEO of Lenddo. “What’s new is that we’re now able to measure through massive computing power.”
A German company called Kreditech says that it uses up to 8,000 data points when assessing an application for a loan.
In addition to data from Facebook, eBay or Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) accounts. Kreditech also gathers information from the manner in which a customer fills out the online application. For example, your chances of getting a loan improve if you spend time reading information about the loan on Kreditech’s website. If you fill out the application typing in all-caps (or with no caps), you’re knocked down a couple pegs in Kreditech’s eyes.
Kreditech can determine your location and considers creditworthiness based upon whether your computer is located where you said you live or work.
The individual data points may not have meaning themselves, but can paint a good picture of the applicant when brought together, said Sebastian Diemer, a co-founder of Kreditech.
Another company, Kabbage, an online service that offers cash advances to small businesses, considers an owner’s FICO score — but only as one piece of a larger pie.
“We can get much better, faster data,” said Marc Gorlin, Kabbage’s chairman and co-founder.
Borrowers grant Kabbage access to their PayPal, eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) and other online payment accounts, disclosing real-time sales and delivery information. The company says it can determine a business’ creditworthiness and put money into its account in just seven minutes.
Once a small business is getting credit from Kabbage, it also has the option to link up its Facebook and Twitter accounts to the site, which could provide a bump in its “Kabbage score.” The small businesses that do are 20% less likely to be delinquent on their loans, Gorlin said.
