With nearly every other person hooked up to the digital social media, the lines between the real and the virtual have blurred greatly. At the same time, a number of ethical questions have popped up, forcing social media gurus to consider them. For instance, the social media has been abuzz when employers demanded prospective candidates to reveal their Facebook login IDs as part of the interview.
Now, it has been reported, that according to some leaked documents, German-based credit ratings firm, Schufa, wishes to access the data from all major social networks regarding its customers. Essentially, the company wishes to do so to allow it to form a better and more accurate opinion of its customers and thus, form their credit ratings accordingly.
However, a huge problem with this is that it will comprise the privacy of the customers. Why should a company want to dig into the personal and private data of an individual for business purposes? This is precisely the question that needs to be answered so that such companies could be kept at bay and a definite code of conduct be made to govern social media so that no company can be given the legal permission to do so.
The good thing is that the German authorities were quick to snub such attempts by Schufa. According to consumer protection minister, “It cannot be that social networks are systematically scoured for sensitive data, resulting in credit ratings of customers. Content and comments on social networking sites should not be abused by the credit bureaus. Schufa may not be the Big Brother of the economy.”
Source: Das Beste am Norden
Courtesy: Giga Om
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