Picked up on this story from 'the local de' about how a joint investigation by radio station NDR Info and Die Welt newspaper discovered internal Schufa papers (a credit bureau in Germany) tasking a research group with working out how to link information found on the internet with other details to determine personal credit ratings.
"Although the research institute – the private Hasso-Plattner Institute in Potsdam – said on Friday it was pulling out of the project because it had been “misunderstood” – the question remains of what information could reasonably be used by Schufa in making a credit rating.
The idea was to use profiles on services such as Facebook, Xing (An EU version of Linked In) and Twitter in order to get addresses, as well as gleaning information from property rental and sale sites such as immoscout24 or mobile.de.
This kind of talk always touches a nerve in Germany, where people are notoriously sensitive to data protection rules - as can be seen in the trail of legal wrangles with sites like Facebook and Google Street View. Germany successfully fought a battle to allow people to have their homes pixellated out on the latter.
The country's consumer protection and data protection groups are furious about the new intervention. “There is always a reason behind such research projects. If Schufa actually uses such data, it would be a completely new dimension,” said Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner for the state of Schleswig-Holstein."
In the article, Credit bureau to trawl Facebook for information, the Local reported that Schufa, a privately-held credit bureau – by far the biggest in Germany, confirmed cooperation with the Hasso-Plattner Institute for software systems technology (HPI) in Potsdam on the project.
They explain that, "The statistical linking of particular personal characteristics to ability or willingness to pay off loans could also be part of the research, while detailed information will be gathered in the huge data trawl.
Both the HPI and Schufa stressed that the research would be conducted according to the highest ethical standards, and that everything would be published after a three-year work period.
The more concrete plans of Schufa were contained in a second paper, Die Welt said. This included the idea that, “Information generated from the web would be linked by Schufa with other information and analysed from a business perspective.”
Consumer protection and data protection groups are furious. “There is always a reason behind such research projects. If Schufa actually uses such data, it would be a completely new dimension,” said Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner for Schleswig Holstein state.
“People who are on Facebook do not think that what they say there could one day be influential in their credit status. That crosses a line,” said Edda Castelló, data protection commissioner in Hamburg.
Schufa's consumer advisory council said on Thursday afternoon it had not been informed of the plans - and that it was less than enthusiastic about them.
"We are disconcerted to find that the the contents or aims of this project were not discussed with the advisory council ahead of time," read an email sent by five of the council's 15 members to Schufa's managing director Michael Freytag.
They called for Schufa to urgently lay out exactly what it plans to do. "
It's another reminder that when using social media, only share those things you are comfortable sharing with the whole world... or, at least, your banker.
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