Facebook banking- why this may not be a good idea…

Just as I was beginning to think that Facebook had expanded into every online arena possible, the now-publicly traded internet mogul upped the ante with talk of a banking feature. 

While banks seem non-committal, yesterday American Citibank tweeted “If you could do your ‪#banking on ‪#Facebook - Would you? http://on.fb.me/NmwCiV”. The corresponding Facebook post elicited 100’s of ‘Likes’, suggesting the public may be all-for using Facebook as an online and mobile banking middleman. 

This new feature claims to be fun, safe and secure. Unfortunately, I have my doubts. 

While I yearn for the days that paying my landlord and increasing a line of credit will bring as much joy as looking at my friends’ baby pictures (heh), I feel as though I can adequately do both simply by pressing ‘CTRL Tab’ and typing in my bank’s address. 

My concerns are with privacy, and real (versus perceived) safety and security.  As Facebook is constantly lambasted and sued over privacy-related matters, I think we should treat it as a sneaky (albeit, attractive) neighbour and not tell it any more personal information than it needs to know. Particularly our banking information. 

Of the many reasons the two should not unite, user behaviour may be at the top of the list. And, I assume that the Facebook users’ leniency towards privacy matters won’t increase simply because they added a banking app. Instead, I fear that the safety measures that were once in place for online banking will wane. 

The behaviour of Facebook versus online banking site users varies drastically.  Facebook users tend to linger on the website for hours, leave their pages open while logged on, and often fail to adequately password-protect their account. They also accept invites from strangers and unknowingly download malware. So for these reasons alone, Facebook should not be home to banking information.  

 The behaviour of online banking website user’s, on the other hand, tends to be more secure. There are no interactions, games or links to click. Basically, online banking is so boring you do what you have to do and log out. And it should probably stay that way.

While thieves certainly can gain access to any online account (including your bank), the behaviour of users has a role in just how easy it is to do so.

Bottom line, don’t connect Facebook and online banking or my job as an advisor to those who have had their identities stolen will become a lot more demanding.

So, would you use Facebook banking?

Facebook banking- why this may not be a good idea was written by Heather. Heather is a Case Manager/ Identity Theft Advisor at CITSC and she prefers to do her banking the old fashioned way- in a bank.